Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, has long feared the advent of human-level artificial intelligence (AI) would lead to destruction of civilization, so this week he donated $10 million to make sure would-be killer robots remain benevolent.
The Future of Life Institute announced its receipt of the gift on Thursday, saying it will begin accepting grant proposals from AI researchers, as well as other fields related to AI, such as economics, law, ethics, and policy.
"Dramatic advances in artificial intelligence are opening up a range of exciting new applications", said AI researchers Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg, and Mustafa Suleyman upon hearing the announcement. Together, the three researchers co-founded DeepMind Technologies, which was recently acquired by Google.
"With these newfound powers comes increased responsibility. Elon's generous donation will support researchers as they investigate the safe and ethical use of artificial intelligence, laying foundations that will have far reaching societal impacts as these technologies continue to progress."
Putting it even more simply, Jaan Tallinn, Skype founder and co-founder of FLI, explained that, "Building advanced AI is like launching a rocket. The first challenge is to maximize acceleration, but once it starts picking up speed, you also need to focus on steering."
Beyond grant giving, FLI also intends to facilitate industry dialogue through meetings and conferences.