No wonder Elon Musk’s rapid U-turn from being against artificial intelligence developments to launching his own OpenAI rival has experts questioning his motive behind this approach.
What Happened: Vinod Khosla, a prominent tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist, said that the Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO’s concerns about the risk of AI might be a tactic to gain the upper hand over other companies in the field, reported Bloomberg.
Khosla was referring to Musk’s plan to develop an AI system that seeks maximum truth even though he signed an “open letter” asking to halt the development of systems “more powerful” than OpenAI’s chatGPT-4.
See Also: Google Losing Edge In AI War? Engineer Says Open-Source, Not ChatGPT, The Real Threat
An investor in OpenAI, Khosla, expressed doubts about Musk’s intentions behind signing the letter. “I 80% suspect his call to slow down AI development was so he could catch up.”
“Elon is behind,” Khosla added, saying, “He realizes AI technology is really important to him both in the Tesla car” and robotics.
For the unversed, Musk, who recently established a new entity named X.AI, is actively engaged in creating AI robots and advancing the technology for Tesla automobiles.
Khosla isn’t the only person who thinks Musk’s intentions are self-centered. Tesla CEO’s fellow “PayPal Mafia” member, Reid Hoffman, previously said that Musk’s approach appears to be “less well-intentioned.”
Musk has reportedly assembled a team of AI researchers and engineers and secured thousands of high-powered GPU processors from Nvidia Corp. NVDA.
Why It’s Important: Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, along with the likes of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. He stepped down from the company’s board in 2018 over conflicts with the team.
It was previously reported that Musk wanted to run OpenAI alone, but Altman and others turned down his proposal.
Musk accused Microsoft Corporation MSFT of having “exclusive access to their entire OpenAI codebase” on the back of its hefty investment.
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