Ever because the AI wave took over the planet, Twitter chief Elon Musk emerged as one in all its most vocal critics. He was the largest doomsayer of all of them. He has known as out the unchecked adoption of synthetic intelligence and warned that it will probably destroy our civilization, and even signed a petition that urged enterprise leaders and governments to place a pause on AI growth until a complete regulatory framework may be created. However yesterday, July 12, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO introduced his personal AI firm, xAI, to “perceive the universe”. Does he have a plan to unravel the issues created by the “AI demon”?
10 instances Elon Musk warned the world about AI
Elon Musk has by no means shied away from making his opinions recognized and his Twitter account is his favourite place to speak about it. So, as soon as the AI pleasure left Silicon Valley and have become a world phenomenon, with companies left and proper leaping to undertake the brand new expertise, Musk got here out expressing his considerations about the identical.
1. The primary time he tweeted towards the rise of AI was December 1, 2022, when he used an analogy (with a reference to a Beatles music) to clarify the logical bias of synthetic intelligence. He said, “There nonetheless is not strawberry-picking robotic, however researchers are engaged on it. As they apply AI to maximizing what number of strawberries get picked, it would do no matter it takes to get extra & extra planted, till ultimately there are strawberry fields without end”.
2. Simply the following day, Musk once more took a dig on the lack of regulation inside AI area in a tweet the place a person expressed their considerations over Neuralink starting human testing. He stated, “In comparison with AI, progress with Neuralink might be sluggish and simple to evaluate, as there’s giant regulatory equipment approving medical gadgets. There is no such thing as a regulatory oversight of AI, which is a *main* drawback. I have been calling for AI security regulation for over a decade!”
3. For the remainder of the month, he known as out OpenAI’s ChatGPT a number of instances, after it was revealed that the chatbot had a left-leaning political ideology in its early days. In a viral tweet, he stated, “There may be nice hazard in coaching an AI to lie”.
4. In February Microsoft Bing chatbot was made public and in its early days, it behaved erratically, together with an incident the place it stated it wished to be a human. Musk tweeted a hyperlink to the article, and said, “Sounds eerily just like the AI in System Shock that goes haywire & kills everybody”.
5. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Musk stated, “AI is extra harmful than, say, mismanaged plane design or manufacturing upkeep or unhealthy automotive manufacturing, within the sense that it’s, it has the potential — nonetheless small one might regard that chance, however it’s non-trivial — it has the potential of civilization destruction”.
6. When a person known as out Musk for being hypocritical and criticizing AI when he cofounded OpenAI (he has since left the corporate), he replied, “OpenAI was created as an open supply (which is why I named it “Open” AI), non-profit firm to function a counterweight to Google, however now it has change into a closed supply, maximum-profit firm successfully managed by Microsoft. Not what I supposed in any respect”.
7. The SpaceX CEO continued criticizing OpenAI’s GPT mannequin even after adjustments have been made to make the chatbot not reply to any prompts containing discriminatory textual content in direction of a race, faith, incapacity, gender, and so on. Calling it a bias, he said, “Rewarding an AI for bias/deception is the trail to a dystopian future”.
8. After OpenAI gave an unique license to Microsoft for the GPT-3 mannequin, Musk tweeted, “This does appear to be the alternative of open. OpenAI is actually captured by Microsoft”.
9. Highlighting the dangers of AI, he even known as out a benign dependency on the expertise. He tweeted, “Even benign dependency on AI/Automation is harmful to civilization if taken up to now that we ultimately overlook how the machines work”.
10. Musk revealed he instructed even Obama about AI regulation. He said, “I noticed it (risks of exponential development of AI) taking place from properly earlier than GPT-1, which is why I attempted to warn the general public for years. The one one on one assembly I ever had with Obama as President I used to not promote Tesla or SpaceX, however to encourage AI regulation”.
The origin of xAI
With all these warnings, one can simply consider Musk as an AI naysayer. Nonetheless, now, he has began his personal AI firm. However there isn’t a cognitive dissonance in it, as many have been questioning. He has talked about a number of instances about his want to begin an AI firm and the rationale he wished to create it.
On March 30, 2023, replying to a tweet about the best cause to construct an AI, Musk said, “AI optimizing for the best understanding of the universe is perhaps the best goal. Eliminating or stunting human civilization would cut back understanding”. In a separate interview with Carl Tuckerson, he additionally stated that he may find yourself calling his AI firm ‘TruthGPT’, “a most truth-seeking AI that tries to grasp the character of the universe”.
In April 2023, when Musk merged Twitter into X Corp, he additionally registered X.AI Corp as an AI startup, hinting at what’s to return.
Attending a Wall Avenue Journal occasion afterwards, Musk explained his imaginative and prescient with xAI. He stated, “I feel there must be a major third horse within the race right here. I do not wish to soar the gun right here on bulletins, however OpenAI has a relationship with Microsoft that appears to work very properly … so it is doable that X.AI and Twitter and Tesla would have one thing comparable”.
How will Musk save humanity?
What it seems to be is that Musk will probably harness the applied sciences from the stupendously profitable SpaceX and Tesla to energy the AI fashions at xAI, and the output will even be shared with Musk’s corporations to make them extra AI succesful.
What’s xAI’s goal? We have no idea a lot at this level since Musk didn’t present any data on what the startup will truly do. Nonetheless, we discovered its official web site. The web site says, “The aim of xAI is to grasp the true nature of the universe”, which corroborates his earlier assertion on what the aim of AI must be.
Apparently, the advisor to the corporate is Dan Hendrycks who at the moment serves because the director of the Middle for AI Security. So, it’s probably that Musk’s new firm will try and both not delve into territories the place it will probably trigger the “destruction of civilization”, or will discover a extra moral solution to clear up the issues within the AI area.
Musk will even be internet hosting a Twitter Areas chat on the official xAI Twitter account tomorrow, July 14, the place customers can meet the workforce and ask them questions. We should always know extra about Musk’s efforts to avoid wasting humanity from unregulated AI.
