Business leaders have warned of a possible “Terminator scenario”. Source: AP

Now, billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is ploughing $US11 million into 37 projects that could protect us from killer artificial intelligence (AI).

The relentless innovator’s Open Philanthropy program, organised through the Future of Life Institute, is dedicated to “keeping AI robust and beneficial”.

Should those efforts fail, the possibilities are terrifying. One project is dedicated to keeping the interests of superintelligent systems aligned with human values; another looks at how to keep autonomous weapons under “meaningful human control”.

Some are focused on how we can ensure our smart computers have ethics and moral reasoning, while others are trying to give robots a degree of irrational understanding, so their work remains aligned with human interests.

Benjamin Rubinstein, from the University of Melbourne, has been awarded almost $US100,000 to research “sophisticated adversaries wishing to breach system security”, through smartphones, social media or even blood glucose monitors.

Elon Musk is building our defence against the machines. Source: AFP

Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking are among the high-profile voices who inspired the multimillion-dollar program by raising concerns over the potentially disastrous consequences of out-of-control AI.

“The danger with the Terminator scenario isn’t that it will happen, but that it distracts from the real issues posed by future AI,” said FLI president Max Tegmark. “We’re staying focused, and the 37 teams supported by today’s grants should help solve such real issues.”

Musk, who has committed $US7m to projects beginning around September, will focus the remaining $US4m on the areas that emerge as most promising.

“Here are all these leading AI researchers saying that AI safety is important”, Musk said in January, in response to an open letter calling for action from research leaders including Facebook, IBM, Microsoft and the founders of Google’s DeepMind Technologies.

“I agree with them, so I’m today committing $10m to support research aimed at keeping AI beneficial for humanity.”

Skype-founder Jaan Tallinn, one of FLI’s founders, sketched out where the world is now in simple terms. “Building advanced AI is like launching a rocket,” he said. “The first challenge is to maximise acceleration, but once it starts picking up speed, you also need to focus on steering.”

If humans don’t hold on to the power, the impact could be devastating.