Elon Musk, the tech entrepreneur and Tesla CEO, exchanged views on-stage with Jack Ma, Chinese billionaire and co-founder of the multinational conglomerate Alibaba Group, over the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence. There's like a name, AI, it sort of sounds a bit like love?" began Musk to which Ma amusingly replied "Yeah AI...I hate the word AI called artificial intelligence. I call it Alibaba intelligence." Both leaders had different opinions on the implications of the technology where optimistic Ma said that he didn't consider AI to be a threat, "I don't know, man, that's like, famous last words," replied Musk. According to the Tesla CEO, most people think of AI as a smart human but he said it's going to be much more than that. "It'll be much smarter than the smartest human." He further highlighted AI's capability to be much smarter than humans by saying that "the biggest mistake that I see artificial intelligence researchers making is assuming that they're intelligent.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Alibaba founder and Chairman Jack Ma kicked off the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China, with an informal debate about AI and its implications to humanity. Throughout their conversation, Musk and Ma touched on several topics, from jobs, the need for educational reform, moving to Mars, and how humans' way of life can improve in the future. The two billionaires have vastly differing points of view concerning artificial intelligence. While Musk is cautious about AI considering the dangers it may pose to humanity, Ma is far more optimistic. "I don't think AI is a threat," Ma said, responding to the Tesla CEO's introductory points.

Artificial intelligence has been a mainstay of the conversation in Silicon Valley these past few years, and now the technology is increasingly being discussed in policy circles in DC. Washington types see opportunities for AI to improve efficiency and increase economic growth, while at the same time, they have growing concerns around job automation and competitive threats from China and other countries. Now, it appears the White House itself is getting involved in bringing together key American stakeholders to discuss AI and those opportunities and challenges. According to Tony Romm and Drew Harwell of the Washington Post, the White House intends to bring executives from major tech companies and other large corporations together on Thursday to discuss AI and how American companies can cooperate to take advantage of new advances in these technologies. While the event has many tech companies present, a total of 38 companies are expected to be in attendance including United Airlines and Ford.