‘AI Doesn’t Need Protein So it Won’t Eat Us,’ says SoftBank CEO

In a conversation with OpenAI chief Sam Altman in Tokyo, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said that AI, even as it develops the ability to understand emotions, will not pose a threat to humanity. 

Son said that if AI’s source of energy were protein, it would be dangerous. However, he clarified, “Their source of energy is not protein, so they don't have to eat us.” Hence, there is no need for AI to harm humans for sustenance.

“AI will understand human happiness and try to make humans happy,” Son added, dismissing fears of a dystopian future in which AI harms people.

“In the next 10 years, it will gradually start to have at least an understanding of people’s emotions, and then gradually, it will start to have emotions by itself. And it’s a good thing to protect humans,” he said, reacting to people’s belief that AI developing emotions would be “a disaster”.

Altman said that AI’s ability to understand human emotions will likely spark a philosophical debate. According to Son, as AI becomes smarter, it will be able to understand human emotions and be nicer to us if we are nice to it. “Like we are nicer to friends, they will become nicer to humans. That's my belief,” he said.

Moreover, Son expressed optimism about AI's potential to revolutionise sectors like healthcare and education. He said that AI could one day cure or treat all diseases, offering hope for great healthcare for everyone on Earth. 

“This is one of the areas I am most excited about,” he said, adding that AI could play an important role in easing the burden on healthcare professionals.

SoftBank Group recently announced a partnership to develop and market an enterprise AI solution called Cristal intelligence.

“Cristal intelligence will securely integrate the systems and data of individual enterprises in a way that is customised specifically for each company,” an announcement from SoftBank stated. 

SoftBank also revealed that they will spend $3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across all the companies in their group, which includes the chip design giant Arm.