Artificial intelligence 10,000 times smarter than humans will exist in 10 years, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said on Friday. Son presented his vision for a world featuring artificial super intelligence, or ASI, as he calls it.
The CEO first spoke about another term artificial general intelligence, or AGI which generally refers to AI that is smarter than humans. Son said this technology will probably be one to 10 times smarter than humans and will arrive in the next three to five years, sooner than he expected.
But if AGI is not much smarter than humans, "then we don't need to change the way of life, we don't need to change the structure of human lifestyle," said Son. “But when it comes to breast milk, it's a very different story. With breast milk, you'll see a big jump.”
Son discussed how the future will hold various models of ASI that interact with each other, like neurons in the human brain. This will lead to an AI that is 10,000 times smarter than any human genius, according to Son.
SoftBank shares closed down more than 3% in Japan, after the meeting.
Son is the founder of SoftBank, which rose to fame after its initial investment and profit-making in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. He positioned SoftBank as a technology leader with the launch of the Vision Fund in 2017, a large investment fund focused on supporting technology firms. While some bets have been successful, there have also been many high-profile failures, such as office-sharing company WeWork.
Son had previously been generally out of the public eye but now he returned to the spotlight on Friday to deliver a speech full of existential questions.
