Billionaire investor and renowned hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones sparked widespread controversy after his remarks about the existential risks of artificial intelligence, stating during an interview with CNBC on Tuesday that he estimates a 10% chance that artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of half of humanity within the next two decades.
Jones's remarks came after his participation in a private conference that included a select group of prominent figures in technology, science, and finance, held under the Chatham House Rule, which allows discussion content to be shared without disclosing the identity of the speakers.
Jones presented what he described as a stark warning from one participant, who pointed out that the world would not take the threat of artificial intelligence seriously until after a disaster that claims the lives of between 50 to 100 million people.
During one of the interactive sessions at the conference, attendees were asked to express their stance on a hypothesis that there is a 10% chance that artificial intelligence could wipe out half of humanity within the next twenty years.
Jones clarified that he was among the few who chose to side with this proposition, noting that his conviction was influenced by what he heard from Elon Musk, whom he described as the brightest engineer of our time.
And while acknowledging the amazing capabilities of artificial intelligence, Jones described the technology as extremely dangerous, emphasizing by saying:
It may be wonderful, but we do not have control over it.
It is worth noting that Paul Tudor Jones was one of the first major investors on Wall Street to publicly endorse Bitcoin in 2020, and his comments came at a time of increasing convergence between the AI sector and the cryptocurrency mining industry, especially in the context of diversification and expansion efforts in high-performance computing infrastructure.