What is TruthGPT and Elon Musk's AI Plan?
Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, announced that he is building an AI platform called “TruthGPT” that will compete with Google and Microsoft’s AI chatbots. TruthGPT is expected to be a "maximum truth-seeking AI" in contrast to OpenAI's ChatGPT which is said to have been trained to lie. Musk has been critical of OpenAI since he left the startup, calling it a "closed source" and for-profit outfit "closely allied with Microsoft."
In an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News Channel, Musk stated that TruthGPT would be an AI chatbot that tries to understand the nature of the universe and might be the best path to safety as it is unlikely to annihilate humans. Musk is currently recruiting AI experts from Alphabet Inc’s Google to build TruthGPT as a rival to OpenAI.
Elon Musk Worries about AI’s Danger
Musk has been a vocal critic of AI and its potential dangers to humanity. He co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left the company’s board of directors in 2018. Musk had called for a six-month moratorium on systems more powerful than OpenAI’s recently debuted GPT-4, citing possible societal hazards. During the discussion with Tucker Carlson, Musk reiterated his concerns stating that AI is more dangerous than mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production. He added that it has the potential to destroy civilizations.
Musk’s Long Tryst with AI
After leaving OpenAI, Musk stated on Twitter that Tesla was competing for some of the same people as OpenAI and he didn’t agree with some of what the OpenAI team wanted to do. This led Musk to leave OpenAI to focus on Tesla and SpaceX. Musk recently valued Twitter at “less than half” of the acquisition price and accused Google co-founder Larry Page of not taking AI safety seriously.
Efforts to Regulate AI
Efforts are being made to regulate the development of AI systems. According to a joint statement released by G7 ministers, regulation should preserve an open and enabling environment for the development of AI technologies and be based on democratic values. The White House has revealed plans to regulate AI, which will be led by Vice President Kamala Harris. The idea is to get companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI to participate in a public review. Geoffrey Hinton, Google's former leading AI expert, is now warning against the rapid development of AI.
