Mark Zuckerberg criticises Elon Musk for 'irresponsible' warnings over AI

But Elon Musk hits back suggesting that Zuckerberg 'has limited understanding of AI'

A war of words has broken out between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg over the danger - or otherwise - presented by artificial intelligence.

In a Facebook Live chat on Sunday, Zuckerberg told viewers that Elon Musk's comments on artificial intelligence, which have often included doom-laden warnings, were "irresponsible".

It comes after Musk repeated his fears that AI, if not properly managed could represent a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation".

His comments, made at the National Governors Association summer meeting, were more than a little bleak.

"I have exposure to the very cutting edge AI," said Musk, "and I think people should be really concerned about it. I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don't know how to react, because it seems so ethereal."

Zuckerberg's view is more optimistic. He suggests that artificial intelligence will mean safer self-driving cars and big data helping to cure diseases in ways that human thinking couldn't possibly conceive.

"One of the top causes of death for people is car accidents still and if you can eliminate that with AI, that is going to be just a dramatic improvement," said Zuckerberg.

However, Musk has responded with an acidic put-down on Twitter, suggesting that Zuckerberg doesn't know what he's talking about.

Musk has a lot of fans on this and can probably be considered more of an authority on artificial intelligence (as well as self-driving cars and rockets) than Zuckerberg.