Bill Gates shares Elon Musk's worries about AI

Artificial intelligence would start out as a help but would become ''strong enough to be a concern'', Bill Gates said in Reddit's latest question and answer session, The Independent reported.

Responding to a question about whether machine super intelligence would become an existential threat, Gates said that he was ''in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence''.

''First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent,'' he wrote. That should be positive if we manage it well.

''A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned.''

The warning came as part of Gates' Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, which was the third time that he had taken part in one of the question and answer sessions on the site.

Microsoft's technologies such as Cortana, the digital personal assistant, make use of artificial intelligence to anticipate what users would need next and respond to their requests.

During the AMA, Gates said that he was working on such technology.

Meanwhile Forbes reported that Tesla chief, Elon Musk had earlier this month committed $10 million of his own money to fund an effort to keep artificial intelligence friendly.

Gates and Musk both had an interest in ensuring that artificial intelligence not only stayed friendly, but it also stayed viable, given that it would likely play a role in the future of not only Microsoft, but also Musk's SpaceX and Tesla.

Musk and Gates could just be right about the threat posed by artificial super-intelligence, feels Forbes contributor Eric Mack. He says when people who were likely to benefit most from a new technology saw red in it, ''there was something worth worrying about.''

He further says, to really understand the potential threat Musk and Gates were talking about, he highly recommended reading Nick Bostrom's recent book, Superintelligence, which laid out the entire artificial super-intelligence landscape – including threats posed.

He added, the book had been referred to and recommended in the past by Musk and it seemed to be the primary foundation for much of the recent concern over AI.