The New Non-Profit That Could Prevent the Robot Apocalypse

— -- Instead of being anxious about a possible future robot uprising, some of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley are doing something about it.

Elon Musk and other wealthy technologists are pouring $1 billion into a new project called OpenAI that will be tasked with advancing artificial intelligence for the sake of benefiting humanity.

The stated goal of OpenAI is to focus on research and development in artificial intelligence that will have a "positive human impact."

"Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return," a welcome letter on the OpenAI website reads. "Since our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on a positive human impact. We believe AI should be an extension of individual human wills and, in the spirit of liberty, as broadly and evenly distributed as possible."

Despite the staggering $1 billion pledge, the group said it plans to spend a small amount of the money over the next few years.

"It's hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society and it's equally hard to imagine how much it could damage society if built or used incorrectly," OpenAI's letter said.

Musk, who will serve as a co-chair at OpenAI, has previously expressed his concern that artificial intelligence could one day be a threat to humanity. In July, Musk and Stephen Hawking added their names to an open letter presented at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, calling for a ban on autonomous weapons.