Though he is the world’s richest man and he made that fortune from technology, that doesn’t mean Bill Gates embrace everty new technological breakthrough as a step forward for mankind. In a recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), Microsoft’s former CEO answered questions that included a number relating to robotic technology’s effect on the future. “I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence,” Gates stated. “First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.”

Musk’s concerns grew out of the work of Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philoso-pher. In a tweet Musk referred to Bostrum’s work and said that Artificial Intelli-gence, if handled poorly could ne “more destructive than nukes.”

In Superintelligence, Bostrom suggested that the creation of artificial intelligences with abilities comparable to those of humans would quickly give way to “superintelligences” — computers with cognitive and computational abilities that far surpass those of humanity.
“The issue with these superintelligences though,” Gates continued, “is that once they’re created, they’ll be too hard to control. Though we may imbue super-intelligences with goals that are intended for our benefit, Bostrom suggests that the nuances of these goals may be lost once translated into a language under-standable to machines.”

An example Bostrom gave is that of a hypothetical intelligence charged with something innocuous like “making people smile.” To a human researcher, this would suggest a robot that tells jokes or stories. To a superintelligence, however, a more efficient route to accomplish its goal would be to paralyze the facial muscles into a fixed grin.

Gates acknowledge however, that as far as he is concerned, though, this possible future is a long way off. In another comment, he assured a questioner that a career in programming is still a safe choice for now.