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Reuters

Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Tesla’s Elon Musk took opposing views of the risks and potential rewards of artificial intelligence at an event in Shanghai.

The Chinese entrepreneur said he was “quite optimistic” about AI and thought it was nothing for “street smart” people like them to be scared of.

“I don’t know man, that’s like famous last words,” responded Tesla’s chief.

Mr Musk added that technology was evolving faster than our ability to understand it.

The two did, however, agree on one topic: that one of the biggest problems the world is facing is population collapse.

The businessmen are two of the most influential tech leaders shaping the world today.

US-based Mr Musk made his fortune at the digital payments firm PayPal before going on to run electric car-maker Tesla, space rocket company SpaceX and tunnel-transport business The Boring Company among other ventures. He also helped create OpenAI, a San Francisco-based AI research company, although he has since broken ties with it.

Mr Ma co-founded Alibaba, which rivals Amazon for the title of the world’s largest e-retailer and is also one of the world’s largest cloud computing providers. The group is one of the world’s biggest spenders on AI, both within its own business as well as via investments in dozens of third-party companies.

Their 45-minute conversation kicked off the World AI Conference (WAIC), which ties into China’s goal of overtaking the US to become the world’s leading artificial intelligence innovator by 2030.

Less work

Mr Ma focused much of his comments on how machine learning could act as a force for good. He said it was something “to embrace” and would deliver fresh insights into how people think.

“When human beings understand ourselves better, then we can improve the world better,