Daily Archives: July 18, 2017

Renewables Sector Embraces the Promise of Virtual Reality – Greentech Media

Posted: July 18, 2017 at 4:12 am

A lab that opened last month in Fife, Scotland shows how the energy industry is embracing virtual reality systems considered futuristic justtwo years ago.

The Fife College Immersive Hybrid Reality lab is designed to enhance the training and development of the next generation of offshore wind turbine technicians, according to a press release.

It simulates the top of a nacelle on a 7-megawatt offshore wind turbine, allowing students to carry out fault-finding inspections without having to leave shore.

The virtual environment is modeled on a real-life demonstration turbine off the East Fife coast, used by the U.K.s Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult scheme for research and training.

Students can view the virtual environment through special goggles, but at the same time see their own hands and feet as well as being able to pick up and use real tools and manuals.

The virtual environment, created by the ORE Catapult along with Scottish public-private initiative the Energy Skills Partnership and animation studio Animmersion U.K., includes audio effects, such as wind noise, and can even simulate changing weather conditions.

A second virtual environment, currently being worked on, will simulate the interior of the turbine.

At the lab opening last month, the Scottish Government Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, Shirley-Anne Somerville, pledged further funding of GBP 50,000 (around $65,000) for the Energy Skills Partnership.

The money follows 300,000 ($389,000) already invested by the Scottish government in the virtual reality (VR) project.

Bill Hutchison, Fife College curriculum manager for electrical, electronic and petroleum engineering, predicted a rapid uptake of VR and augmented reality (AR) in the energy sector.

The renewable energy sector is already a primary user of VR for training, along with the aerospace, nuclear, construction and oil and gas industries, he said.

For offshore wind, in particular, VR and AR could provide very direct cost benefits compared to on-site training by avoiding the need to waste expensive components and spend money on travel to remote locations.

Students can use VR to "fly" through a virtual model of a turbine and become familiar with the work environment before visiting a site, which can help with logistics and job sequencing while reducing the likelihood of errors.

AR, meanwhile, allows engineers to complete work on site while benefiting from a VR overlay that provides information on assembly sequencing, tolerance measurement, tightening torque values and so on.

These are not the only areas where the offshore wind industry is beginning to use VR, though. The turbine maker MHI Vestas, for example, employs virtual environments as a sales tool at its exhibition stands.

One of the challenges in the offshore wind industry is that turbines are not accessible, said Michael Morris, external communication consultant at MHI Vestas Offshore Wind.

Located in remote areas of the North Sea and standing over 100 meters high, not many people get a chance to see these mammoth turbines, let alone actually see inside one of them. VR actually is the only cost-effective way to show people an offshore wind turbine.

MHI Vestas, which also uses VR for training, has conference stations where stand visitors don harnesses, protective vests and headsets before getting a guided tour around a virtual nacelle.

Thousands of people have experienced the film over the past few years, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, Morris said. When we need to show people what the turbines look like and how they operate, VR is undoubtedly the best way.

Today the main thing holding back greater adoption of VR is the number of systems there are to choose from, Hutchison said.

Certain systems may be better suited to given applications and it is still hard to pick market winners that stand a good chance of remaining in business in a few years time, he said.

However, there does appear to be a refinement process going on quite rapidly, with a number of systems moving out in front as preferred choices, he noted.

It would be reasonable to see all advanced engineering industries to be routinely using VR and AR within the next five to 10 years, he said.

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Is 2018 the Year Virtual Reality Goes Mainstream? — The Motley Fool – Motley Fool

Posted: at 4:12 am

Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) Oculus is reportedly planning to release a stand-alone virtual reality device next year to retail for just $200. The goal is to push VR into the mainstream.

Virtual reality has been a niche product for the better part of 30 years, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a big bet that VR is going to be the next big computing platform when his company bought Oculus for $2 billion in 2014.

Oculus released its first consumer product, the Rift, last year. While the device is relatively affordable, it requires users to hook it up to an expensive PC to run software. Meanwhile, low-cost devices that license Oculus technology, like Samsung's (NASDAQOTH:SSNLF) Gear VR, require a high-end smartphone. The new device will find a happy middle ground in terms of both capabilities and price. That may be just what the market needsfor mass consumer adoption.

Facebook Spaces. Images source: Facebook

Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg stated, "It's going to take five or 10 more years of development before we get to where we all want to go." Considering, the new Oculus device will have limited capabilities -- for example, no positional tracking -- it's just another step for the company in its push toward making VR the next big computing platform.

Other consumer electronic companies are following suit. Samsung is reportedly planning its own stand-alone headset as well, which will rely on Oculus technology. Other players like HTC and Lenovo are working on similar devices using Google's Daydream platform.

But Zuckerberg would compare these upcoming devices to early smartphones like those from Blackberry or Palm circa 2003. In other words, it's still very early and it could be another five years or more before we see a device that sparks mass interest in the platform. Zuckerberg points out it took 10 years for the smartphone market to sell 1 billion devices.

"I don't know [if] there was something that folks could have done to make that happen fast, but I think that was pretty good. And if we can be on a similar trajectory of anywhere near 10 years for VR and AR, then I would feel very good about that," Zuckerberg said during Facebook's fourth quarter earnings call earlier this year. "We're going to invest a lot in this and it's not going to return or be really profitable for us for quite a while," he added.

One big hurdle for virtual reality to overcome is a lack of content. That could be anything from immersive video content to video games. The problem is it's hard for top video game studios to create games for the platform before a mass audience exists.

To that end, Facebook has committed $250 million to new VR content. Most of that money will go toward software -- like the Facebook Spaces app the company unveiled during its F8 developers conference this spring -- and video games.

The new stand-alone device could help build a sizable enough audience that Facebook would no longer have to seed the content ecosystem. VR projects would be viable of their own accord, and game studios and software developers could start investing their time and money in projects for both high-end and low-end devices.

There's a ton of interest in virtual reality right now from a development side, but consumer demand hasn't quite taken off. We may still be a few years away from that, and Facebook will likely continue to lose money on its VR investments, but a stand-alone device with a broader reach than current devices have may be a key step to getting to where Facebook wants to go.

Adam Levy has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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The Reality (and Virtual Reality) of Malaria – HuffPost

Posted: at 4:12 am

For years now, I have been involved with Nothing But Nets, an amazing organization devoted to fighting malaria. I have always felt called to support them and their mission in any way I can, so for my 15th birthday this year, I decided to request something unique.

I invited some friends and family to come over and experience for themselves something that has been eye-opening for me. I had each of my guests put on a pair of virtual reality (VR) goggles which showed firsthand what life can be like for those who live in places overrun by malaria-infected mosquitoes. I showed them Nothing But Nets new virtual reality film, Under the Net. VR can be a moving experience, and can demonstrate just how much of a difference even a simple $10 protective bed net could make in someones world. (These nets can protect entire families from mosquitoes at night while they are sleeping!) Also, thanks to VR, my family and friends were able to learn more about how people deal with malaria, and how common (and scary) it can be. VR really can capture the effects malaria can have on the body in a powerful way. Having the chance to take a first-hand look into another human beings entirely different world is an opportunity that is both eye-opening and humbling. In seeing this different world, my family, friends, and I have become more grateful of what we have, and also have been reminded of the importance of philanthropy and giving to others.

While reading or hearing about something is one thing, actually seeing peoples lives and how they live, and seeing the effects of the nets you are buying for them via VR is so much more significant. It has the power to spark something within: whether that spark inspires you to to donate more energy, more time, or more funds into helping those dealing with the effects of malaria, I believe it is important to act on our feelings of empathy, and reach out to those in need. VR as a whole gives us an empowering experience that opens our eyes to others experiences; it lets us visualize moments in others shoes. We can read articles all we want, but nothing is as effective as actually seeing these issues, feeling empathy, and then, most importantly, acting on those feelings. VR can give us a sense of empathy for all those affected by this disease, inspiring us to go and actually create change.

What you all (hopefully) may be thinking now that youve read this post is how do I actually get involved? There are so many ways to bring awareness and bring about change. Whether its by supporting and spreading the word about great organizations such as Nothing But Nets, by fundraising, or even by scheduling meetings with your local members of Congress to ask for funding for key U.S. Government programs such as The Presidents Malaria Initiative and Global Fund, there are countless ways to help support the cause.

In fact, to learn more about malaria and fighting it, please go check out the Nothing But Nets official website here: https://www.nothingbutnets.net/

Of course, reading a website cant be as interactive as a virtual reality experience-- but, it can be the start of something bigger. Check out the website, and then, if you have access to VR goggles, check out the VR malaria experience for yourself. And if you dont, just come over anytime and borrow mine. Virtual reality might be just the thing we need to bring awareness to our actual reality.

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The Reality (and Virtual Reality) of Malaria - HuffPost

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Senior Executives from Film and Virtual Reality Industries Join NBHIC – CU Anschutz Today (press release)

Posted: at 4:12 am

The National Behavioral Health Innovation Center announced today that Rick Rekedal, a former senior executive with DreamWorks Animation, and Dr. Walter Greenleaf, a pioneer and leading authority on virtual reality for medical use, have joined its staff.

Walter and Rick are recognized internationally as leaders in their fields, said Matt Vogl, executive director of NBHIC at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Their knowledge and insight are powerful assets to our mission of finding bold new solutions to the countrys mental health crisis.

In 2016, Rekedal completed over 20 years with DreamWorks as Chief Creative of franchise development and the global franchise director of the hit movie Trolls. Rekedal has also worked on properties such as How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, developing merchandising, interactive and licensing programs. Rekedals work has been recognized with two Annie Awards, two Kids Choice Awards and Toy of the Year. He is a frequent speaker and serves on advisory boards for The Wedgwood Circle; Michael W. Smith Group and Seabourne Pictures; and Belmont Universitys film school.

Rekedal joins NBHIC as Senior Creative Advisor, consulting on how to elevate an open and urgent national conversation on mental health.

Greenleaf is a behavioral neuroscientist and a medical product developer who has been on the cutting edge of virtual reality and augmented reality applications in healthcare for more than 30 years.

In his role as NBHICs Director of Technology Strategy, Greenleaf brings his considerable knowledge to the Centers approach to digital initiatives. He continues to work as a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab.

He has developed several clinical product streams, founded medical companies, and served as a scientific advisor and reviewer for the U.S. Public Health Service, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, NASA and the U.S. Department of Education. He holds a PhD in Neuro and Bio-behavioral Sciences from Stanford University.

Our approach is to seek out unexpected partners as we look beyond the current mental health system for new solutions, said Vogl. Walter and Rick fit that approach. Walters depth of knowledge in virtual reality and Silicon Valley are leading us to work with new technology partners in developing cutting edge tools for mental health treatments. Ricks extraordinary creative abilities can help steer powerful human connections to combat the awful stigma that is so harmful to many people in need.

Guest contributor: Lauren Baker, marketing and communications strategist for the National Behavioral Health Innovation Center at CU Anschutz.

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Elon Musk’s Freak-Out Over Killer Robots Distracts from Our Real AI Problems – WIRED

Posted: at 4:11 am

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Elon Musk's Freak-Out Over Killer Robots Distracts from Our Real AI Problems - WIRED

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Elon Musk: AI is a ‘fundamental existential risk for human civilisation’ and creators must slow down – The Independent

Posted: at 4:11 am

Elon Musk has branded artificial intelligencea fundamental existential risk for human civilisation.

He says we mustnt wait for a disaster to happen before deciding to regulate it, and that AI is, in his eyes, the scariest problem we now face.

He also wants the companies working on AI to slow down to ensure they dont unintentionally build something unsafe.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX was speaking on-stage at the National Governors Association at the weekend.

I have exposure to the most cutting-edge AI and I think people should be really concerned about it, he said. I keep sounding the alarm bell but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they dont know how to react because it seems so ethereal.

I think we should be really concerned about AI and I think we should AIs a rare case where I think we need to be proactive in regulation instead of reactive. Because I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, its too late.

Normally the way regulations are set up is that a whole bunch of bad things happen, theres a public outcry, and then after many years, a regulatory agency is set up to regulate that industry. Theres a bunch of opposition from companies who dont like being told what to do by regulators. It takes forever.

That, in the past, has been bad but not something which represented a fundamental risk to the existence of civilisation. AI is a fundamental risk to the risk of human civilisation, in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes, faulty drugs or bad food were not. They were harmful to a set of individual in society, but they were not harmful to society as a whole.

AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilisation, and I dont think people fully appreciate that.

However, he recognises that this will be easier said than done, since companies dont like being regulated.

Also, any organisation working on AI will be crushed by competing companies if they dont work as quickly as possible, he said. It would be up to a regulator to control all of them.

When its cool and regulators are convinced that its safe to proceed, then you can go. But otherwise, slow down.

He added: I think wed better get on [introducing regulation] with AI, pronto. Therell certainly be a lot of job disruption because whats going to happen is robots will be able to do everything better than us. Im including all of us.

Earlier this year, Mr Musk said that humans will have to merge with machines to avoid becoming irrelevant.

Ray Kurzweil, a futurist and Googles director of engineering, believes that computers will have human-level intelligence by 2029.

However, he believes machines will improve humans, making us funnier, smarter and even sexier.

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Elon Musk: AI is a 'fundamental existential risk for human civilisation' and creators must slow down - The Independent

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Vendors rush to call everything AI even if it isn’t, or doesn’t help – The Register

Posted: at 4:11 am

Many enterprise software vendors are focused on the goal of simply building and marketing an AI-based product rather than identifying use cases and the business value to customers.

So says Gartner analyst Jim Hare in a July 6th piece of research titled How Enterprise Software Providers Should (and Should Not) Exploit the AI Disruption.

Nearly every technology provider is now claiming to be an AI company, Hare writes, having counted more than 1,000 vendors who claim to either sell AI or bake it into their products. This ultrahype of the AI label has led to a hysteria of 'rebranding' from companies desperate to keep up. Similar to the go-go days of the late 1990s, when every enterprise was an 'ebusiness' company, many vendors are entering the AI market by simply adding 'AI' to their sales and marketing materials.

Similar to greenwashing, in which companies exaggerate the environmental-friendliness of their operational practices for business benet, many technology vendors are now 'AI washing' by applying the AI label a little too indiscriminately.

That's not helpful, he argues, because AI-washing often contains nothing more than empty promises.

Some vendors are promoting AI brands as if they are superheroes (such as Einstein, Holmes, Leonardo and Watson) that can save the world, he says. While it is creative brand marketing, it misdirects buyers and increases confusion as to what is real and what is just marketing.

He also says plenty of AI isn't, as follows:

Ouch. And double ouch for VendorLand because Hare says users are already seeing through the hype and just not buying AI while they wait for the hype to die down. He also warns that those who do buy AI now are at risk of becoming disillusioned by products that over-promise, under-deliver and leave buyers wary of buying any more AI any time soon.

Hare therefore urges marketers to tone it down, drop the term AI from their web pages and hop off the hype-train if they want to be differentiated or have a serious discussion about how their wares use machine learning.

He remains a believer in AI, however, as his document predicts it will be pervasive by 2020 and that it can work well when used to improve the performance of existing systems, rather than as a big-bang upgrade.

But he also warns that even when taking that path of least resistance, organisations will struggle to adopt AI because few have the skilled people to sift through the masses of supposedly artificially-intelligence products on offer, never mind keep them running once installed.

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Vendors rush to call everything AI even if it isn't, or doesn't help - The Register

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AI bots will kill us all! Or at least may seriously inconvenience humans – The Register

Posted: at 4:11 am

Analysis Elon Musk the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink, not to mention co-chairman of OpenAI and founder of The Boring Company is once again warning that artificial intelligence threatens humanity.

In an interview at the National Governors Association 2017 Summer Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island on Saturday, Musk insisted that AI endangers human civilization and called for its regulation.

"I have exposure to the most cutting edge AI and I think people should be really concerned about it," he said. "I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don't know how to react, you know, 'cause it seems so ethereal."

Musk said AI represents a rare case where regulation should be proactive rather than reactive, "because I think by the time we're reactive in AI regulation, it's too late."

Arguing that we need to depart from the traditional method of regulation, in which rules follow disaster and public outcry, Musk insisted that dangers posed by clever code running amok are so great that we cannot wait.

"AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization and I don't think people fully appreciate that," Musk declared, even as he allowed that regulation can be "pretty irksome" and businesses would prefer not to be saddled with onerous rules.

Fear of apocalyptic AI is a longstanding theme for Musk. He rang the same alarm bell back in 2014 at at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AeroAstro Centennial Symposium when he said, "I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. I'm increasingly inclined to think there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure we aren't doing something foolish."

Despite the potential for nuclear annihilation, flu pandemic, biowarfare, socio-economic upheaval, meteor strike, and climate catastrophe, Musk believes we need to focus more on overseeing algorithms.

Worries about Machiavellian machines, voiced by Musk and other technical luminaries like Stephen Hawking, have prompted conferences and calls to adopt protective principles.

Musk serves as co-chairman of OpenAI, a non-profit research company founded in late 2015, ostensibly to promote the development of AI that benefits humanity. The organization's initial blog post, penned by Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, echoes Musk's framing of the situation: "It's hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society, and its equally hard to imagine how much it could damage society if built or used incorrectly."

And it's hard to understand what AI actually refers to.

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AI bots will kill us all! Or at least may seriously inconvenience humans - The Register

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Humans and AI will work together in almost every job, Parc CEO Tolga Kurtoglu says – Recode

Posted: at 4:11 am

Artificial intelligence is poised to continue advancing until it is everywhere and before it gets there, Tolga Kurtoglu wants to make sure its trustworthy.

Kurtoglu is the CEO of Parc, the iconic Silicon Valley research and development firm previously known as Xerox Parc. Although its best known for its pioneering work in the early days of computing developing technologies such as the mouse, object-oriented programming and the graphical user interface Parc continues to help companies and government agencies envision the future of work.

A really interesting project that were working on is about how to bring together these AI agents, or computational agents, and humans together, in a way that they form sort of collaborative teams, to go after tasks, Kurtoglu said on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher. And robotics is a great domain for exploring some of the ideas there.

Whereas today you might be comfortable asking Apples Siri for the weather or telling Amazon's Alexa to add an item to your to-do list, Kurtoglu envisions a future where interacting with a virtual agent is a two-way street. You might still give it commands and questions, but it would also talk back to you in a truly conversational way.

What were talking about here is more of a symbiotic team between an AI agent and a human, he said. They solve the problems together, its not that one of them tells the other what to do; they go back and forth. They can formulate the problem, they can build on each others ideas. Its really important because were seeing significant advancements and penetration of AI technologies in almost all industries."

You can listen to Recode Decode on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher and SoundCloud.

Kurtoglu believes that both in our personal lives and in the office, every individual will be surrounded by virtual helpers that can process data and make recommendations. But before artificial intelligence reaches that level of omnipresence, it will need to get a lot better at explaining itself.

"At some point, there is going to be a huge issue with people really taking the answers that the computers are suggesting to them without questioning them, he said. So this notion of trust between the AI agents and humans is at the heart of the technology were working on. Were trying to build trustable AI systems.

So, imagine an AI system that explains itself, he added. If youre using an AI to do medical diagnostics and it comes up with a seemingly unintuitive answer, then the doctor might want to know, Why? Why did you come up with that answer as opposed to something else? And today, these systems are pretty much black boxes: You put in the input, it just spits out what the answer is.

So, rather than just spitting out an answer, Kurtoglu says virtual agents will explain what assumptions they made and how they used those assumptions to reach a conclusion: Here are the paths Ive considered, here are the paths I've ruled out and heres why.

If you like this show, you should also sample our other podcasts:

If you like what were doing, please write a review on Apple Podcasts and if you dont, just tweet-strafe Kara.

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Humans and AI will work together in almost every job, Parc CEO Tolga Kurtoglu says - Recode

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Elon Musk Warns Governors: Artificial Intelligence Poses ‘Existential Risk’ – NPR

Posted: at 4:11 am

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responds to a question by Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval during the third day of the National Governors Association's meeting on Saturday in Providence, R.I. Among other things, Musk warned governors that artificial intelligence poses a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization." Stephan Savoia/AP hide caption

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responds to a question by Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval during the third day of the National Governors Association's meeting on Saturday in Providence, R.I. Among other things, Musk warned governors that artificial intelligence poses a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, speaking to U.S. governors this weekend, told the political leaders that artificial intelligence poses an "existential threat" to human civilization.

At the bipartisan National Governors Association in Rhode Island, Musk also spoke about energy sources, his own electric car company and space travel. But when Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, grinning, asked if robots will take everyone's jobs in the future Musk wasn't joking when he responded.

Yes, "robots will do everything better than us," Musk said. But he's worried about more than the job market.

"AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization, and I don't think people fully appreciate that," Musk said. He said he has access to cutting-edge AI technology, and that based on what he's seen, AI is "the scariest problem."

Musk told the governors that AI calls for precautionary, proactive government intervention: "I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it's too late," he said.

He was clearly not thrilled to make that argument, calling regulation generally "not fun" and "irksome," but he said that in the case of AI, the risks are too high to allow AI to develop unfettered.

"I think people should be really concerned about it," Musk said. "I keep sounding the alarm bell."

It's true: For years, Musk has issued Cassandra-like cautions about the risks of artificial intelligence. In 2014, he likened AI developers to people summoning demons they think they can control. In 2015, he signed a letter warning of the risk of an AI arms race.

Musk has invested in a project designed to make AI tech open-source, which he asserts will prevent it from being controlled by one company. And earlier this year, Maureen Dowd wrote a lengthy piece for Vanity Fair about Musk's "crusade to stop the A.I. apocalypse." Dowd noted that some Silicon Valley leaders including Google co-founder Larry Page do not share Musk's skepticism, and describe AI as a possible force for good.

Critics "argue that Musk is interested less in saving the world than in buffing his brand," Dowd writes, and that his speeches on the threat of AI are part of a larger sales strategy.

Back at the governors conference, some politicians expressed skepticism about the wisdom of regulating a technology that's still in development. Musk said the first step would be for the government to gain "insight" into the actual status of current research.

"Once there is awareness, people will be extremely afraid," Musk said. "As they should be."

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Elon Musk Warns Governors: Artificial Intelligence Poses 'Existential Risk' - NPR

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