Musk crosses swords with Jack Ma over AI capabilities

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma on Wednesday entered into a classic argument over the capabilities of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).

At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference here, Musk said that computers will one day surpass humans in "every single way", while Ma argued that humans will continue to be in control, CNBC reported on Thursday.

As evidence of progress in AI, Musk referred to advances in chess as well as the Chinese board game of Go.

Talking of Neuralink, a start-up he co-founded which is creating brain-on-a-chip, Musk said the technology from the company could help people enhance cognitive capabilities with brain-machine interfaces.

In July, Neuralink unveiled tiny brain "threads" in a chip which is long lasting, usable at home and has the potential to replace cumbersome devices currently used as brain-machine interfaces.

The chip which will be wireless in the future can read, transmit high-volume data and amplify signals from the brain.

The Alibaba Chairman argued that it is "impossible" for machines to control humans.

Countering Musk on superiority of technology on playing chess or Go, Ma said that these games were designed to pit one individual against another, not an individual against a machine.

"I'll be happy to see two computers fight each other," Ma added.