Elon Musk Is Donating $10 Million To Keep Killer Robots From Taking Over The World

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Elon Musk

REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Elon Musk has a habit of worrying about killer robots. So he's taking action to keep them from harming us all in the future.

The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla donated $10 million to the Future Of Life Institute on Thursday to help keep artificial intelligence and robots of the future beneficial.

The Future Of Life Institute, a non-profit organization founded by scientists that describes itself as "working to mitigate existential risks facing humanity," will give out Musk's donation to researchers. 

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The application process will begin next week.

Anyone from academics to people working in the tech industry can apply, as long as they have good ideas about how to make artificial intelligence work for the betterment of society.

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Musk, who previously said artificial intelligence is "potentially more dangerous than nukes," can rest easy for now. Most of the money he's donated will go to researchers focused on artificial intelligence, and the rest will go to AI research "involving other fields such as economics, law, ethics, and policy," according to the Institute's website.

In a YouTube video announcing his decision to donate to the Future of Life Institute, Musk said, "There should probably be a much larger amount of money applied to AI safety in multiple ways." At the very least, his donation is a start.

Here's his tweet from Thursday, announcing his donation: