The war of words between billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk is heating up.

Tesla CEO, Musk has today hit back at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming his understanding of artificial intelligence as 'limited'.

Musk was responding to comments made by Zuckerberg where he said Musk's negativity about the future of AI is 'pretty irresponsible'.

A Twitter user posts an article about Zuckerberg's comments to which Musk responded saying 'I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited'.

The spat between the two technology CEOs shows the huge disagreements in the community about what will happen to the future of technology.

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When asked his thoughts on AI in light of recent concerns expressed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk (pictured), Zuckerberg explained that he’s ‘really optimistic’ about its development, as it holds potential to bring ‘a dramatic improvement in people’s lives’

THE SPAT Billionaire Elon Musk has slammed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's understanding of artificial intelligence as 'limited'. Musk was responding to comments made by Zuckerberg where he said Musk's negativity about the future of AI is 'pretty irresponsible'. A Twitter user posts an article about Zuckerberg's comments to which Musk responded saying 'I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited'. Advertisement

Musk has been very vocal about his concerns over the future of AI.

He has warned that the development of robots will cause huge disruption to jobs and believes people should have a universal basic income to protect them.

The tech giant revealed in June he’s kept a ‘wary eye’ on the growth of AI for years as an investor in DeepMind, which was acquired by Google in 2014.

While humans may be able to stop a runaway algorithm, there would be ‘no stopping’ a large, centralised AI that calls the shots, Musk said.

However, Zuckerberg believe as artificial intelligence continues to grow, technology could soon bring humanity to a safer, healthier future – and he says arguing otherwise would be ‘pretty irresponsible.’

When asked his thoughts on AI in light of recent concerns expressed by Musk, Zuckerberg explained that he’s ‘really optimistic’ about its development, as it holds potential to bring ‘a dramatic improvement in people’s lives.’

In a Facebook Live session this weekend, Zuckerberg fielded questions from users while barbequing in his Palo Alto backyard, addressing everything from AI to the ongoing issue of global internet accessibility.

A Twitter user posts an article about Zuckerberg's comments to which Musk responded saying 'I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited'

During the Facebook Live session, Zuckerberg responded to several questions, including one which said:

‘I watched a recent interview with Elon Musk, and his largest fear for future was AI. What are your thoughts on AI, and how it could affect the world?’

Taking a different stance than Musk and others who have warned of the potential dangers of technology, Zuckerberg argued that AI will have a number of positive impacts on our daily lives.

As artificial intelligence continues to grow, technology could soon bring humanity to a safer, healthier future, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg – and arguing otherwise would be ‘pretty irresponsible.’ Zuckerberg is pictured during a recent keynote address

MUSK: AI IS A FUNDAMENTAL RISK During a question-and-answer session at the summer conference of the National Governors Association in Rhode Island., Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned that regulation of artificial intelligence is needed because it's a 'fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation.' The billionaire said regulations will stop humanity from being outsmarted by computers, or 'deep intelligence in the network', that can start wars by manipulating information. Governments must have a better understanding of artificial intelligence technology's rapid evolution in order to fully comprehend the risks, he said. 'Once there is awareness, people will be extremely afraid, as they should be...By the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it'll be too late,' he added. Advertisement

‘I have pretty strong opinions on this,’ Zuckerberg said.

‘I’m really optimistic. I’m an optimistic person in general – I think you can build things and the world gets better. But, with AI especially.

‘And I think that people who are naysayers and kind of try to drum up these doomsday scenarios are – I don’t understand it.

‘It’s really negative and in some ways I actually think it’s pretty irresponsible.’

Zuckerberg argued that these improvements could come as soon as the next 5-10 years, rippling across several facets of life.

And, in some ways, he explains, these benefits are already here.

‘If you think about just safety, and health, and keeping people safe, AI is already helping us basically diagnose disease better, match up drugs with people depending on what they’re sick [with] so they can get treated better,’ he said.

‘So it’s going to help a whole lot of people get treated, and get better healthcare than would have had access to it before.’

Zuckerberg points to self-driving cars as an example.

As cars remain one of the top causes of death, he says it’s ‘only a matter of time’ before driverless cars become safer than humans behind the wheel.

‘You could eliminate that with AI,’ Zuckerberg said.

‘That is going to be just a dramatic improvement in people’s lives.’

During the summer conference of the National Governors Association in Rhode Island, Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned that regulation of AI is needed because it's a 'fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.' A still from the film Terminator Genisys is pictured

And, while he acknowledges that it’s necessary to use caution, as ‘technology can generally always be used for good and bad,’ it would be ‘questionable’ to argue in favour of slowing its growth.

‘I have a hard time wrapping my head around that,’ Zuckerberg said.

‘Because if you’re arguing against AI, then you’re arguing against safer cars that aren’t going to have accidents.

‘And you’re arguing against being able to better diagnose people when they’re sick, and I just don’t see how in good conscience some people can do that', he said.

However, Musk is not so optimistic about the future of AI.

‘There is a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation,’ Musk told CNBC in November last year.

‘And then we have to figure out how we integrate with a world in the future with advanced AI,’ Musk told CNBC, noting that this will likely be the ‘toughest’ part.

‘Ultimately,’ he said, ‘it would need to be some kind of improved symbiosis with digital super-intelligence.’