AI needs regulation, but what kind, and how much?

Perhaps the best-known risk is embodied by the killer robots in the “Terminator” films—the idea that AI will turn against its human creators. The tale of the hubristic inventor who loses control of his own creation is centuries old. And in the modern era people are, observes Chris Dixon, a venture capitalist, “trained by Hollywood from childhood to fear artificial intelligence”. A version of this thesis, which focuses on the existential risks (or “x-risks”) to humanity that might someday be posed by AI, was fleshed out by Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher, in a series of books and papers starting in 2002. His arguments have been embraced and extended by others including Elon Musk, boss of Tesla, SpaceX and, regrettably, X.