Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk Endorse 23 Principles for A.I.

Follow these guidelines and maybe artificial intelligence won't kill us all.

by James Grebey
February 12, 2017

Artificial intelligence is an amazing technology that’s changing the world in fantastic ways, but anybody who has ever seen the movie Terminator knows that there are some dangers associated with advanced A.I. That’s why Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and hundreds of other researchers, tech leaders, and scientists have endorsed a list of 23 guiding principles that should steer A.I. development in a productive, ethical, and safe direction.

The Asilomar A.I. Principles were developed after the Future of Life Institute brought dozens of experts together for their Beneficial A.I. 2017 conference. The experts, whose ranks consisted of roboticists, physicists, economists, philosophers, and more had fierce debates about A.I. safety, economic impact on human workers, and programming ethics, to name a few. In order to make the final list, 90 percent of the experts had to agree on its inclusion.

“What remained was a list of 23 principles ranging from research strategie…