Elon Musk planning to develop "TruthGPT" to challenge woke AI rivals like DeepMind, OpenAI

By jdheyes // 2023-04-19

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Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, advocated for government regulation of AI technology during an interview on Fox News Channel's "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Monday. Musk also disclosed his plan to launch a new AI initiative called "TruthGPT" as he is concerned that present AI firms are instructing their systems to be "politically correct," CNBC reported, citing the interview. Additionally, Musk discussed his concerns and aspirations regarding AI in-depth during the interview. He also mentioned his ownership of Twitter, which he obtained for $44 billion in October 2022, but did not delve into specifics regarding Tesla or SpaceX during the segment of the interview that aired on Monday night. Part II of the interview aired Tuesday night. Musk told Carlson he envisions a regulatory agency that “initially seeks insight into AI, then solicits opinion from industry, and then has proposed rule-making," similar to how the Federal Aviation Administration works with aviation and aerospace companies. With a federal agency and industrywide rules in place, “I think we’ll have a better chance of advanced AI being beneficial to humanity,” Musk said, according to CNBC. Musk, who is also the co-founder of Neuralink and The Boring Company, expressed his desire to launch a new AI initiative called "TruthGPT" during the interview. He envisions TruthGPT as a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.” Earlier this year, Musk signed on to a letter calling for a pause on AI development because he fears it could literally destroy humanity. “Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth?” the letter read. TruthGPT, if created, would ostensibly compete with other AI initiatives around the world, including Sam Altman-led OpenAI, which was initially backed by Musk, as well as Google's DeepMind and other similar efforts, the financial news outlet reported. “I think this might be the best path to safety, in the sense that an AI that cares about understanding the universe, it is unlikely to annihilate humans because we are an interesting part of the universe,” Musk said on the show. The billionaire entrepreneur added that he is extremely concerned that current AI technology is “being trained to be politically correct, which is simply another way of ... saying untruthful things.” During the interview, Musk also addressed Twitter, the social media platform he obtained through a $44 billion acquisition in late 2022. Carlson questioned Musk if he was taken aback by the extent of intelligence agencies' access to Twitter. “The degree to which various regulatory agencies effectively have full access to what’s going on on Twitter blew my mind," Musk admitted, adding that the federal government was also monitoring personal "DMs" or direct messages sent between users. Law enforcement agencies in the United States have the authority to subpoena a social media user's direct messages or any other data that is held by a U.S. company and is not encrypted end-to-end, CNBC noted. Musk has made assurances that Twitter will provide users with the option to "toggle encryption on" for direct messaging starting as soon as next month. When questioned whether he believed that Twitter would continue to play a significant role in future elections, as it did during the presidency and campaign of Donald Trump, Musk responded, “I think it will play a significant role in elections, not just domestically but internationally.” Musk shared that Twitter is currently operating with approximately 20% of its previous workforce, which was around 7,500 employees when he assumed control. However, he did not specify an exact number. He joked: “If you’re not trying to run some sort of glorified activist organization, you can really let go of a lot of people it turns out." Sources include: CNBC.com PRNewswire.com

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