If the recent, very public war of words between two of the world's most prominent technology CEOs, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, has taught us anything it's that the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) is still a highly contentious one. For the uninitiated, Musk made headlines recently when he publicly stated that AI, in his opinion, posed a significant threat and was in dire need of regulation, going so far as to call it a "fundamental risk to the existence of civilisation". Zuckerberg, meanwhile, called such warnings "pretty irresponsible", choosing instead to accentuate the benefits AI could provide in saving lives through medical diagnoses and driverless cars. Clearly, it's very easy for technologists to put AI into a box and wax lyrical about their vision of how it will impact humanity. The truth is that it's a far more nuanced debate than you might think – largely because AI can come in a number of shapes and sizes. To be clear, the form that is being discussed by Musk and Zuckerberg relates primarily to artificial intelligence that has'human level' cognitive skills, otherwise known as AGI or'Artificial General Intelligence', which despite impressive progress in a bunch of specialities (from driving cars to playing Go) is not close to imminent.

In recent days we have seen an escalation in the war of words between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg surrounding the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI). Musk worries that if unregulated AI will grow and grow in influence and could ultimately pose an existential threat to humanity. As a result, he is advocating that governments need to start regulating the technology. Zuckerberg, on the other hand, disagrees on the need for more regulation and is more sanguine about the prospects of AI. Now, this is a macro level argument about the prospects and nature of AI.