This is a clip from a conversation with Elon Musk from Nov 2019, his second appearance on the podcast. New full episodes are released once or twice a week and 1-2 new clips or a new non-podcast video is released on all other days. You can watch the full conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smK9dgdTl40
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Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and a co-founder of several other companies.

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There's a tremendous amount of good that Neuralink can do in solving critical damage to the brain or the spinal cord.

There's a lot that can be done to improve quality of life of individuals, and those will be steps along the way.

And then ultimately, it's intended to address the existential risk associated with a digital super intelligence.

Like we will not be able to be smarter than a digital super computer.

So therefore, if you cannot beat them, join them.

So you have hope that Neuralink will be able to be a kind of connection to allow us to merge, to ride the wave of the improving AI systems.

He's saying 1 in a billion or 1 in a million, whatever it was, the dumb and dumber.

You know, it went from maybe 1 in a million to improving, maybe it'll be 1 in a thousand and then 1 in a hundred, then 1 in 10.

It depends on the rate of improvement of Neuralink and how fast we're able to make progress.

Well, I've talked to a few folks here that are quite brilliant engineers, so I'm excited.

It's important that Neuralink solve this problem sooner rather than later, because the point at which we have digital superintelligence, that's when we pass the singularity.

It doesn't mean that they're necessarily bad or good, but the point at which we pass singularity, things become extremely unstable.

So we want to have a human brain interface before the singularity, or at least not long after it, to minimize existential risk for humanity and consciousness as we know it.


Speaker 0: There's a tremendous amount of good that Neuralink can do in solving critical damage to the brain or the spinal cord. There's a lot that can be done to improve quality of life of individuals, and those will be steps along the way. And then ultimately, it's intended to address the existential risk associated with a digital super intelligence. Like we will not be able to be smarter than a digital super computer. So therefore, if you cannot beat them, join them.

And at least we won't have that option.

Speaker 1: So you have hope that Neuralink will be able to be a kind of connection to allow us to merge, to ride the wave of the improving AI systems.

Speaker 0: I think the chance is above 0%.

Speaker 1: So it's non-zero. There's a chance and that's...

Speaker 0: So what I've seen... Have you seen Dumb and Dumber? Yes. So I'm saying there's a chance.

Speaker 1: He's saying 1 in a billion or 1 in a million, whatever it was, the dumb and dumber.

Speaker 0: You know, it went from maybe 1 in a million to improving, maybe it'll be 1 in a thousand and then 1 in a hundred, then 1 in 10. It depends on the rate of improvement of Neuralink and how fast we're able to make progress.

Speaker 1: Well, I've talked to a few folks here that are quite brilliant engineers, so I'm excited.

Speaker 0: It's important that Neuralink solve this problem sooner rather than later, because the point at which we have digital superintelligence, that's when we pass the singularity. And things become just very uncertain. It doesn't mean that they're necessarily bad or good, but the point at which we pass singularity, things become extremely unstable. So we want to have a human brain interface before the singularity, or at least not long after it, to minimize existential risk for humanity and consciousness as we know it.

See all Lex Fridman transcripts on Youtube

Elon Musk: So You're Saying There's a Chance - Neuralink and Merging with AI