Elon Musk has been very vocal about his concerns over artificial intelligence, and now the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has quantified his worries.

In a recent talk, Musk claimed that efforts to make AI safe only have 'a five to 10 per cent chance of success.'

The warning comes shortly after Musk claimed that regulation of artificial intelligence was drastically needed because it's a 'fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation.'

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Elon Musk has been very vocal about his concerns over artificial intelligence, and now the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has quantified his worries. In a recent talk, Musk claimed that efforts to make AI safe only have 'a five to 10 per cent chance of success'

WHAT IS NEURALINK? Elon Musk's latest company Neuralink is working to link the human brain with a machine interface by creating micron-sized devices. Neuralink was registered in California as a 'medical research' company last July, and he plans on funding the company mostly by himself. It will work on what Musk calls the 'neural lace' technology, implanting tiny brain electrodes that may one day upload and download thoughts. He said 'neural laces' will help people with severe brain injuries in just four years. And in eight to ten years, the Matrix-style technology will be available to everyone, he added. Advertisement

Musk was giving a talk to employees at one of his companies, Neuralink, which is working on ways to implant technology into our brains to create mind-computer interfaces, according to Rolling Stone.

He didn't hold back on his predictions about making AI safe, saying there was 'maybe a five to 10 per cent chance of success.'

Musk added that the employees should 'sleep well' after his warning.

But the CEO then ate a piece of popcorn, before coughing, and added: 'We're talking about threats to humanity, and I'm going to choke to death on popcorn.'

His latest claims follow a warning he made in July 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.

The billionaire made the comments during a question-and-answer session at the summer conference of the National Governors Association in Rhode Island.

'Normally the way regulations are set up is when a bunch of bad things happen, there's a public outcry, and after many years a regulatory agency is set up to regulate that industry,' said Musk.

Elon Musk said that when it comes to making AI safe, there is 'maybe a five to 10 per cent chance of success.' Pictured is a scene from Terminator, in which robots threaten to take over Earth

MUSK: WE MAY LIVE IN A SIMULATION When asked at the 2016 Code Conference in California if the answer to the question of whether we are in a simulated computer game was 'yes', Elon Musk said 'probably.' Musk believes that computer game technology, particularly virtual reality, is already approaching a point that it is indistinguishable from reality. 'If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, just indistinguishable,' he said. 'Even if the speed of those advancements dropped by 1000, 'We are clearly on a trajectory to have games indistinguishable from reality, and there would be billions of there. 'It would seem to follow that the odds that we're in 'base reality' is one in billions', Mr Musk said. Advertisement

'It takes forever. That, in the past, has been bad but not something which represented a fundamental risk to the existence of civilisation.'

Pressed for more specific guidance, Musk said the first step is for government to get a better understanding of the fast-moving achievements in developing artificial intelligence technology.

The Tesla and SpaceX founder was reiterating his long-held argument that it is needed soon to protect humanity from intelligent machines.

He has previously compared AI to 'summoning the devil'.

When asked at the 2016 Code Conference in California if the answer to the question of whether we are in a simulated computer game was 'yes', Musk said 'probably.'

Musk believes that computer game technology, particularly virtual reality, is already approaching a point that it is indistinguishable from reality.

'If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, just indistinguishable,' he said.

His latest claims follow a warning he made in July that regulation of artificial intelligence is needed because it's a 'fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation,' during an interview with Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval

'Even if the speed of those advancements dropped by 1000.

'We are clearly on a trajectory to have games indistinguishable from reality, and there would be billions of there.