Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Take Elon Musk Seriously on the Russian AI Threat

Putin sees power in the technology, which means he's investing in it.

September 5, 2017 at 5:57 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Global superiority.
Photographer: Peter Muhly/WPA Pool via Getty Images

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Elon Musk is worried about governments, specifically the Russian one, competing for artificial intelligence superiority and sparking World War III. That shocking statement was made all the more shocking by the low expectations the world seems to have for Russia, which U.S. Senator John McCain dismissed just a few years ago as a "gas station masquerading as a country."

Recent remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin grabbed Musk's attention. Speaking to schoolchildren about AI on Sept. 1, Putin declared, "Whoever becomes the leader in this area will rule the world." Musk's response emerged on Twitter: "It begins..."