From the Influencers 

This month’s key quotes from those in the know on AI

“AI is one of the most important things humanity is working on. It is more profound than, I don't know, electricity or fire.”  

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is of the opinion that artificial intelligence will have a bigger impact on the world than some of the most important innovations in history

“Google is paying a million dollars for these superstars. You may not need someone that high, but you’ve got to break the scale for at least one person.”

Kai-Fu Lee, who previously ran Google’s business in China, on why companies should pay whatever it takes to get an AI expert into their business

“The fact is that AI can go further than humans, it could be billions of times smarter than humans at this point, so we really do need to make sure that we have some means of keeping up.”  

Speaking on a panel hosted by CNBC at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Futurizon's Ian Pearson argues that people may need to merge with computers to survive

“The first technology revolution caused World War I. The second technology revolution caused World War II. This is the third technology revolution.”

Alibaba founder Jack Ma warns that AI could be responsible for starting a third world war

“This is to AI as prestidigitation is to real magic. Perhaps we should call this ‘Cargo Cult AI’ or ‘Potemkin AI’ or ‘Wizard-of-Oz AI’. In other words, it's complete bullsh*t.”

Facebook’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun on what he makes of Sophia the robot’s AI credentials