Elon Musk has launched a new effort to combat woke artificial intelligence, something he considers to be one of the top threats facing mankind, according to a Monday report.
The Information reported that Musk has approached top “artificial intelligence researchers in recent weeks about forming a new research lab to develop an alternative to ChatGPT,” the first AI tool to hit the mainstream.
The report said Musk believes that ChatGPT is an example of “training AI to be woke.” Musk is recruiting Igor Babuschkin, a top researcher who has worked at Alphabet’s DeepMind AI unit and at OpenAI, to help lead the effort.
Musk has repeatedly criticized ChatGPT and the company that it was created by, which he co-founded, for the direction it has gone.
“The danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie – is deadly,” Musk warned shortly after ChatGPT launched and people began noting numerous problems 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,” Musk tweeted. “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,” Musk said at 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 warned earlier this month that unrestricted development of AI poses a significant threat to the existence of the human race.
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“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,” said Musk. “I mean, you look at say, the discovery of nuclear physics. You had nuclear power generation but also nuclear bombs.”
Speaking in Dubai, Musk said that ChatGPT was society’s first real look at how advanced AI has become because it’s the first time that most people have been able to interface with it.
“I think we need to regulate AI safety, frankly,” Musk said. “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.”