It was hard to enjoy Rishi Sunak’s sit down with Elon Musk on stage at Lancaster House last night. It was hard to hate it, too. We saw two men, two different types of nerd, talking about how artificial intelligence can be good or bad, and how science fiction is a useful guide to this coming reality. They said that AI might provide companionship, make us all redundant, or chase us up the stairs. The language was dramatic – Musk called AI ‘the most disruptive force in human history’ – but the talk was essentially banal. We’ve all had pretty much the same conversation a thousand times this year.
Sunak never sounds entirely comfortable, but he seemed touchingly excited to be talking to Elon, king of the autists, on this big subject at his big ‘Business Connect’ summit.
It was amiable and benign, even as the two men discussed the possible end of human functionality.
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