Elon Musk’s announcement on Wednesday that he’s joining the artificial intelligence race with his new company, xAI, which will set out to “understand the true nature of the universe,” follows fits and starts with the world’s richest man’s involvement with AI. He was an original board member of OpenAI, he left in 2018and it was An early investor in Deepmindbut before now he had never embraced the field of artificial intelligence as a solo pursuit, while often expressing concerns about the dangers posed by artificial intelligence.
This year, he admitted to overpaying Twitter by nearly $20 billion, he witnessed his theft in Silicon Valley, first with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which became the talk of Bay and Wall Street as it rose to the fastest adoption of any technology app in history. Recently, he saw rival Mark Zuckerberg launch the “Twitter killer” Thread, via Instagram’s Meta app, and achieve an even faster adoption rate: more than 100 million users in less than a week.
Musk admitted his displeasure. “I fully admit to being a big asshole here,” Musk said in a May interview with CNBC about leaving OpenAI before it took off.
It’s a far cry from the past decade, when Musk began describing artificial intelligence as one of the greatest threats facing humanity. Musk has never held back from providing colorful images to explain the potential AI apocalypse. In a 2014 speech at MIT, he used color imagery: “With artificial intelligence, we summon the devil. In all those stories where there is the man with the pentagram and holy water, it’s like — yeah, he sure can control the devil.” Musk added that he never succeeds in those stories.
He also described artificial intelligence and AI-powered robots as a “fundamental danger” to the human race Summer meeting of the National Governors Association 2017. At the meeting, he warned that AI bots are learning too quickly and becoming out of control, as well as spreading misinformation and sharing.
“Artificial intelligence is a fundamental danger to the existence of human civilization in a way that car accidents, plane crashes, defective drugs, or bad food have never been — it was harmful to a group of individuals within a society, of course, but it was not harmful to society as a whole,” he said at the conference. He also called for coherent regulation and oversight of technology.
In 2017, Musk tweeted that the race to outsmart AI would cause intense competition between countries that could cause World War III. The tweet came in response to an article in language the edgeMusk, who said that Russian President Vladimir Putin predicted that global supremacy would fall to the country that created the first artificial intelligence in the same year, Musk said that artificial intelligence is a greater danger than North Korea. Hydrogen bomb test.
China, Russia, and soon all countries have powerful computer science. The competition for AI supremacy on a national level is probably the cause of WW3 imo.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017
If you’re not concerned about AI security, you should be. Much greater danger than North Korea. pic.twitter.com/2z0tiid0lc
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017
As the field of artificial intelligence has become the hottest trend in technology, Musk called for a pause In development, citing concerns and calling for regulations.
His fears are hinted at xAI’s website, which says the advice will be provided by Dan Hendricks, director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Security, who warned of the dangers of AI technology that is developing too quickly. But Musk has also recruited several members of the xAI team from rival AI companies, including DeepMind from Google and Microsoft.
He also outlined his thoughts on the competition in a May CNBC interview, citing a fallout with Google’s Larry Page over Microsoft ownership and Page being “arrogant” about technology. He added in the interview that he also disagrees with companies that are taking advantage of AI
“I worry that Microsoft may actually be more in control than the leadership team at, say, OpenAI realizes,” he said in the interview, referring to concerns about profit-driven AI technology at Microsoft.
Musk also unveiled a robot called Optimus at Tesla AI Day last year, which will use similar navigation features aided by Tesla’s AI. also spoke Ominously at the Tesla conference In March, he said that once AI helps build Tesla cars, there is no point in anyone working.
“I don’t know. Tesla is doing good things in the field of artificial intelligence,” he said at the conference, according to Reuters. “It exhausts me. I don’t know what to say about that.”
Musk’s entire view of running an AI company and his intent with AI will surely come through. For now, the xAI website says little more than a list of people and a target, but it does show that Musk isn’t just sitting on the sidelines watching the AI brawl between other tech giants.