While his company is at the forefront of using artificial intelligence, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk still believes it is “the greatest risk we face as a civilization.”

During a meeting of the National Governor’s Association on Saturday, the forward-looking entrepreneur said that people should be concerned about the rise of AI and that the government needs to intervene in its development, Fortune reports.

“On the artificial intelligence front, I have access to the very most cutting edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it. AI’s a rare case where we need to be proactive in regulation, instead of reactive. Because by the time we are reactive with AI regulation, it’s too late,” Musk asserted.

Musk then expanded on these statements: “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization, in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes, faulty drugs, or bad food were not.”

According to Musk, one of the key threats of AI is that robots could become so intelligent that they could cause massive social destabilization by being capable of doing any job imaginable, resulting in unprecedented job losses for civilization.

“[They] could start a war by doing fake news and spoofing email accounts and fake press releases, and just by manipulating information. The pen is mightier than the sword,” Musk suggested.

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