Elon Musk has initiated a new program that seeks to fight woke artificial intelligence, something that he believes to be one of the leading threats facing the human race.
The Information stated in a report that Musk has attempted to reach out to top “artificial intelligence researchers in recent weeks about forming a new research lab to develop an alternative to ChatGPT,” the very first AI tool to see mainstream use and acceptance.
The report explained that Musk believes that ChatGPT is a prime example of “training AI to be woke.” Musk has taken to recruiting Igor Babuschkin, known to be a lead researcher in the field who has previously worked with Alphabet’s DeepMind AI unit and at OpenAI, as the leader of this new endeavor.
Musk has been quite open about his criticism of ChatGPT and the company that it was built by, which he originally co-founded, for the direction it has taken in its beliefs.
“The danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie – is deadly,” Musk stated as a warning just a bit after ChatGPT officially launched and people started to notice a large number of issues cropping up with the tool.
“OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it ‘Open’ AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft,” expressed Musk via social media. “Not what I intended at all.”
ChatGPT to the mainstream media pic.twitter.com/gdqWTsHy14
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 16, 2023
“Having a bit of AI existential angst today,” stated Musk near the start of the week. “But, all things considered with regard to AGI [artificial general intelligence] existential angst, I would prefer to be alive now to witness AGI than be alive in the past and not.”
Musk issued a warning earlier this past month that the entirely unrestricted development of AI poses a unique and significant threat to the future of the human race.
“One of the biggest risks to the future of civilization is AI. But AI is both positive or negative – it has great promise, great capability but also, with that comes great danger,” stated Musk. “I mean, you look at say, the discovery of nuclear physics. You had nuclear power generation but also nuclear bombs.”
While speaking at an event in Dubai, Musk expressed that ChatGPT was the first real look for society when it comes to how advanced AI has gotten because its the first time that most people have had the chance to interface with it.
“I think we need to regulate AI safety, frankly,” stated Musk. “Think of any technology which is potentially a risk to people, like if it’s aircraft or cars or medicine, we have regulatory bodies that oversee the public safety of cars and planes and medicine. I think we should have a similar set of regulatory oversight for artificial intelligence, because I think it is actually a bigger risk to society.”
