Tech billionaire and CEO Twitter Elon Musk reiterated his stance on regulating artificial intelligence (AI) technology suggesting that there should be an institution that could regulate this scientific development lest any company inflict harm to anyone.
Musk, 51, has been voicing concerns over the fast development of AI technology with special reference to OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT 4 — a chatbot that responds as humans.
Last month, Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, had also written an open letter — with other tech executives — highlighting the dangers AI could pose to human civilisation.
While talking in an interview on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, he said that he supports “regulatory oversight” of AI.
He stated during the interview that “there should be some regulatory body that oversees what companies are doing so that they don’t cut corners and potentially do something very dangerous.”
The tech-tycoon went on to say that he saw the “woke mind virus” as something that’s been “a long time brewing,” pointing to the “indoctrination” that has taken place on college campuses as a potential source of it.
He also dismissed criticism of him that labelled him as “conservative,” saying that he considers himself a moderate and touted his resume in sustainable energy as being “not exactly far right.”
Elon Musk concerned about freedom of speech’
About freedom of speech, Musk said: “…I think we need to be very cautious about anything that is anti-meritocratic and anything that results in the suppression of free speech.”
“So, you know, those are two other aspects of the woke mind virus that I think is very dangerous is that it’s anti-meritocratic. You can’t question things. Even the questioning is bad. So, you know, another way… [it’s almost synonymous] with cancel culture.”
“It’s bizarre that we’ve come to this point where free speech used to be a left or a liberal value, and yet we see from the quote ‘left’ a desire to actually censor. And that seems crazy,” said the CEO of SpaceX.
He was of the view: “I mean, I think we should be extremely concerned about anything that undermines the First Amendment. There’s a reason for the First Amendment… People came from countries where they could not speak freely and where saying certain things would get thrown into prison.”
Musk added: “And they were like, well, we don’t want that here. And by the way, in many parts of the world, including part of what the people might think are relatively similar to the United States, the speech laws are draconian.”
“And since I’m an avid Twitter user, I could detect that, like, something’s not right here. And so that’s really why I did the acquisition. It wasn’t because I thought this is an easy way to make money or something like that,” Musk said.
