Billionaire Jack Ma Says World War III Could Happen Because of Technology

A Third World War will most likely happen due to technological advancement, Alibaba founder Jack Ma has warned.

Ma, who recently overtook Wang Jianlin as China’s richest man, made his remarks in an interview with CNBC, adding that he has been urging world leaders to “act fast” on many of his trips:

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

“If they [governments and state leaders] do not move fast, there’s going to be trouble. My belief is that you have to repair the roof while it is still functioning.”

This is not the first time Ma cautioned about the perils of technology. In April, he said that the world will see much more pain than happiness in the next 30 years, blaming automation and the internet economy.

However, Ma is convinced that progress in artificial intelligence may improve people’s quality of life, at least in terms of travel, which would be more common, and work, which would be much shorter.

“I think in the next 30 years, people only work four hours a day and maybe four days a week. My grandfather worked 16 hours a day in the farmland and [thought he was] very busy. We work eight hours, five days a week and think we are very busy.”

The billionaire magnate maintained that robots must only perform tasks humans are incapable of doing — as they can never achieve the wisdom and experience the latter naturally enjoys.

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