Elon Musk has warned that 'advanced AI' could poison social media

REUTERS/Mike Blake

SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

• Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday that if "advanced AI" hasn't already been used to manipulate social media, it will be soon.
• Musk was unclear what he meant by "advanced AI," but described it as "beyond basic bots."
• Musk speaks from some experience - his Twitter account is frequently impersonated by bot accounts attempting to scam unsuspecting users.
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Elon Musk is well-known for his decidedly pessimistic views on artificial intelligence. In the past he has predicted that the advent of an AI superintelligence could end up turning human beings into an endangered species like the mountain gorilla.

On Wednesday however Musk sounded the AI alarm a little closer to the present day, warning that artificial intelligence could 

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"If advanced AI (beyond basic bots) hasn't been applied to manipulate social media, it won't be long before it is," he tweeted. He added that swarms of bots on social media need to be closely examined.

The Tesla CEO was unspecific as to what he meant by "advanced AI" and exactly what kind of manipulation he was talking about. However, his reference to bot armies "evolving rapidly" could indicate that he fears AI could be used to make bot accounts more convincing or effective.

Read more: From advocating for nuking Mars to feuding on Twitter, here's how Tesla's CEO Elon Musk spent his summer

Musk himself is frequently impersonated by bots on Twitter. At time of writing the top comment which appears under Musk's tweet is an account impersonating the billionaire with the same profile picture and Twitter name, offering people a "prize" if they visit a website. Another comment further down the thread is more or less identical.

The issue of scam accounts posing as Musk got so bad that in July last year Twitter started locking any account with Elon Musk in its name.

However the uses of bots extend far beyond scammers impersonating billionaires. In January last year Twitter announced it had found over 50,000 Russian bot accounts who were posting "election-related" content - and discovered that President Donald Trump had interacted with these accounts hundreds of times.