IBM’s head of Watson likes Elon Musk but ‘hates’ A.I. scaremongering

Warnings of artificial intelligence (AI) posing a threat to humanity are “not helpful,” a top executive at IBM has said.

While critics like Tesla CEO Elon Musk have warned about the risks of developing AI, David Kenny, IBM’s senior vice president of Watson and Cloud, said the technology is already proving to be beneficial.

“It’s making things safer in cybersecurity, it’s helping doctors and nurses and patients better find health care, it’s helping people be compliant and manage their tax codes, so I see all these great benefits from it. And I hate statements that make people afraid because I think that’s not helpful,” Kenny said in a phone interview with CNBC.

Musk has called for regulation of AI, warning that the technology could creator a dictator and cause a third world war. Though Kenny admitted there could be potential risks if the tech is not underpinned by a set of principles, he suggested that such doomsday warnings were overblown.

“I like Elon personally and I appreciate the concern but I actually believe that if businesses and builders of the AI platform really adopt principles or trust and transparency they can get all the goodness without the risk,” he said.

IBM’s Watson computer gained notoriety in 2011 when it beat two champions at the quiz show “Jeopardy!” That marked one of several instances where AI had defeated a human at a game. More than two decades ago, IBM’s Deep Blue triumphed over chess champion Garry Kasparov.

AI researchers have hailed the progress of sophisticated decision making and communication exhibited by machines, but notable figures in science and tech have warned that the emergence of superintelligence — computers whose intelligence surpasses that of humans — could spell the end mankind.

The late Stephen Hawking for instance warned that AI posed an existential threat to humans and could be the “worst” event in the history of civilization. The renowned British scientist said computers could both “emulate” and “exceed” human intelligence.

Last week, it was reported that one of Amazon’s Echo devices recorded the conversation of a family and sent it on to a random person in their contacts list.