Tech magnate Elon Musk has voiced a very important AI issue that may be viewed as controversial by his rivals in the sphere of artificial intelligence development and by critics.
Musk suggested imagining that the first AI development was made not now but in the times of Galileo, mentioning his discovery of the heliocentric solar system and wondering what AI would have been trained to say about it back then.
However, this statement seems to have given him points within the X community as it has raised a hot discussion, with many siding with Musk.
Musk makes crucial AI statement
During his visit to the 2024 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on Saturday, Musk gave a brief interview to journalists, where he was asked how artificial intelligence should be trained, as it emerged as a phenomenon only recently and is developing at a rapid pace.
Musk pointed out that the most important thing is that AI should be trained to tell the truth, even if this truth is unpopular with some or even many people. Musk suggested Galileo's times as an example when that outstanding pioneer astronomer discovered that it is the Earth that rotates around the sun and not the other way around, as the Catholic Church claimed in its doctrine and as was widely believed by both educated and uneducated people. The Inquisition forced Galileo to refute his own statements under threat of being branded a heretic and burned at the stake.
Musk believes that if AI had been trained back in those times, it would have been taught to say that the Sun goes around the Earth.
AI should be as truthful as possible and maximally curious, Elon Musk told journalists since, in that case, it would most likely “foster humanity.” This is the continuation of Musk’s struggle against OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AIs created by Meta and other IT behemoths that he believes to be “woke” - since they avoid discussing certain social issues such as politics, sex, gender and religion, and are spreading DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).
As a response to that, Musk’s xAI startup created the Grok AI chatbot that is not bounded by any limits as to the subjects it is trained to discuss with users.