Alibaba Group co-founder and executive chairman Jack Ma gestures during a pannel session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting, on January 23, 2019 in Davos, eastern Switzerland.

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has warned that technology could lead to a third world war.

The Alibaba founder said Wednesday that history shows technological innovation is a primary factor behind global conflicts.

"The first world war was because of the first technology revolution," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "The second technology revolution caused the second world war."

"This is the third technology revolution — we're coming," Ma added.

It's not the first time the business leader has made such a warning, however. In 2017, he made a similar comment, saying that developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence were likely to result in World War III.

Similar ominous remarks have been made by another tech billionaire — Elon Musk. The Tesla chief executive said last year that competition among governments to be leaders in the field of AI was likely to cause WWIII.

On the topic of robots and AI, Ma stressed the importance of education, saying that young people should be able to "do things machines can't do."