In December, Elon Musk took umbrage at the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and put his foot down.
He learned of the connection between OpenAI and Twitter, the young company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, which he bought for $44 billion in October. OpenAI has licensed each tweet’s stream — Twitter’s data — for about $2 million a year to help develop ChatGPIT, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Musk thinks artificial intelligence company Twitter isn’t paying enough.
Therefore Mr. Musk has cut off OpenAI’s access to Twitter data.
Since then, Mr. Musk has stepped up his own activities in the field of AI, while publicly denouncing the risks of the technology. He is in talks with Jimmy Ba, a researcher and professor at the University of Toronto, to create a new AI company called X.AI, three people with knowledge of the matter said. He hired top-level AI researchers from Google’s DeepMind at Twitter.
He also openly talked about creating a ChatGPT rival that would generate political content without restrictions.
The actions are part of Mr. Musk’s long and complicated history with AI, governed by his conflicting views on whether the technology will benefit or destroy humanity. While he recently revamped his AI projects, he signed an open letter last month calling for a six-month hiatus in the technology’s development “due to the severe risks it poses to society.”
Disillusioned with OpenAI
Mr. Although Musk opposes OpenAI and plans to compete with it, he was involved in founding the AI Lab as a nonprofit in 2015. He said he was disillusioned with OpenAI, which no longer operates as a nonprofit and develops technology that takes its side in political and social debates.
Mr. Musk’s approach to AI comes down to doing it yourself. The 51-year-old billionaire, who also runs electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, has long believed his own AI efforts could provide better and safer solutions than those of his competitors, and said people have discussed these issues with him.
“He thinks AI is going to be a major turning point and if it’s mismanaged it could be disastrous,” said Anthony Aguirre, a theoretical cosmologist and founder of the Future of Life Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz. An open letter.
Like many, he wonders: What are we going to do about it?
Anthony Aguirre, an expert in theoretical cosmology at the University of California, Santa Cruz
Mr. Musk and Mr. Ba, who is best known for creating a popular algorithm used to train AI systems, did not respond to requests for comment. Their talks are ongoing, three people familiar with the matter said.
Hannah Wang, a spokeswoman for OpenAI, said that while the company is now generating profits for investors, it is still run by a non-profit organization and its profits are limited.
contradictions
After the launch of ChatGPT in November, Musk became increasingly critical of OpenAI. “We don’t want this to be a profit-raising demon from hell,” he said last week in an interview with recently fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Mr. Musk reiterated his complaints about the dangers of AI and stepped up his own efforts to develop it. At an event for Tesla investors last month, he called on regulators to protect the company from AI to push the boundaries of technological autonomous driving vehicles that have been involved in fatal accidents, even as his auto company uses AI systems.
On the same day, Mr Musk suggested in a tweet that Twitter would use its own data to train ChatGPT-like technology. Twitter has hired two researchers from DeepMind, two people with knowledge of the hiring said. Information and Insider previously reported details of these hires and Twitter’s AI efforts.
In last week’s interview with Carlson, Musk said that OpenAI will no longer be used to check the power of tech giants.
Musk wants to build TruthGPT, “a maximal truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.”
Last month, Mr. Musk registered X.AI. According to registration documents, the startup is incorporated in Nevada, which also names Mr. Musk and his chief financial officer, Jared Birchall, as company directors. published these documents Wall Street Journal.
Experts who have discussed AI with Mr. Musk believe he is honest about the technology’s risks, even as he builds the technology himself. Others believe his position is influenced by other motivations, including his efforts to promote his businesses and make a profit.
“He said robots are going to kill us,” said Ryan Callow, a professor at the University of Washington Law School who has attended AI events with Mr Musk. “A car built by his company has already killed someone. »
This article was originally published The New York Times.
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