Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak gave the "CNN This Morning" crew an unexpected laugh Tuesday when he offered some off-hand commentary on Tesla’s Autopilot struggles during an interview focused on recent news about artificial intelligence.

Wozniak, asked by co-host Kaitlan Collins if he ever talks to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, said he’d never met Musk but that he admires some of the things Musk has done for the world, such as pushing consumers toward electric vehicles. That gets overshadowed, he said, by other things, pointing to the many instances over the years that Musk has been accused of vastly overstating the capabilities of Tesla’s driver assistance system.

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“I actually believed those things, and it’s not even close to reality,” he said. “And boy, if you want a study of AI gone wrong and taking a lot of claims and trying to kill you every chance it can, get a Tesla.”

That jab prompted laughs in the studio.

The issue, however, is no laughing matter. There have been highly publicized fatal crashes involving Tesla vehicles.

An Associated Press story in February about a recall and investigation connected to Tesla's automated driving systems said 19 people had died in crashes where the company's automated systems were suspected of being used.

Wozniak’s been on record in years past, too, criticizing Tesla’s Autopilot.

The Musk/Tesla segment was, however, just a portion of the CNN interview, which highlighted the big A.I. news this week. The New York Times reported Monday that Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI” had quit his job at Google so he could speak freely about the risks of AI.

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Wozniak said that while he’s not living in fear, he does have concerns.

“I just believe that when some powerful technology’s introduced, we should look that almost all technology brings some good things to us and some bad things and we should be responsible and we should study these things and kind of prepare people for what’s coming and take steps maybe to keep it from being too horrible and bad,” Wozniak said, referencing how bad actors flood out inboxes with spam or try to steal our passwords.

Some regulation is needed for AI because some people will use it for “evil purposes,” Wozniak said, noting that he hates to see technology used that way.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Apple co-founder Wozniak says Tesla offers example of 'AI gone wrong'