Should you be afraid of Elon Musk?

ARTIFICIAL intelligence poses a double challenge to the human mind. Not only will the most advanced models soon be able to think better than people, but AI also has consequences for humanity which are so uncertain, so potentially vast and are approaching at such a rapid pace that even the best brains flinch. An example is Elon Musk.

In our long interview with him this week, featured in The Insider and our business section, the engineer and entrepreneur sets out two paradoxes and one contradiction.

The first paradox is that one of the world’s most power-hungry tycoons is enthusiastically helping create a technology that he says will render him – and all other human beings – powerless after as little as five years.