Elon Musk: AI will be 'most likely' cause of World War III

Entrepreneur Elon Musk is raising an alarm over the fast developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

"China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science," Musk tweeted Monday. "Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of [World War III in my opinion]."

The billionaire has been expressing dire, tech-related thoughts for years; in 2014, he said, "I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. So we need to be very careful."

Elon Musk through the years:

Broadly, there appears to be a mixed view among industry experts on AI.

While Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking have also warned of the threat AI could pose to humans, other tech leaders like Google's Larry Page have suggested that advanced machines could help mankind and should be allowed to do so.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in the latter camp and reflecting on Musk's repeated warnings on AI, he said in July, "With AI especially, I'm really optimistic."

"I think that people who are naysayers and kind of try to drum up these doomsday scenarios — I just, I don't understand it," Zuckerberg added. "I think it's really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible."