Elon Musk has a crazy plan for beating artificial intelligence (Mashable)

In case you don't have time yet to read the full ~37,000-word Wait But Why post; also see Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to turn cloud-based AI into an extension of our brains (TechCrunch)

"The short-term goal is just a way to fund the long-term goal, and this is where things start to get really interesting. Musk and his think-tank do not have everything figured out just yet, but the general idea is to advance the neural implant tech while they wait until laws and regulations let them actually implant something into a healthy person's brain. Ultimately, implants would allow for "uncompressed" communication between people, with the compression part being language. So instead of translating your thoughts into language, you can upload them directly to another person's brain, which would increase communication speed by orders of magnitude. 

This could go in (essentially) two directions: Melding brain with machine, like an artificial intelligence. Or, (and this appears to be Musk's primary focus) vastly increasing communication speed between humans, which would allow the human race to keep up with the advent of super-powerful artificial intelligence (which Musk seems to think is inevitable or at least very probable). 

This will also have vast implications on basically everything we do and everything we are. Reading someone's thoughts instantaneously could turn humanity into one giant brain, which in turn could immeasurably speed up progress of the human race, and so forth."

Elon Musk has a crazy plan for beating artificial intelligence