Twitter owner Elon Musk joined Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) for a lengthy conversation regarding artificial intelligence (AI) on July 12, shortly after announcing his new AI company, xAI.
The discussion, which focused predominantly on AI safety, took place on Twitter spaces.
Prior to the nearly 60-minute discussion kicking off, Mr. Musk unveiled xAI in a brief tweet on the social media platform, explaining that the company is part of the businessman’s mission to “understand reality.”
Few details are known about the new firm as of now. According to its website, xAI is a separate company from Musk’s X Corp but will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to make progress toward its mission.
The website lists Igor Babuschkin, Manuel Kroiss, Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, Christian Szegedy, Jimmy Ba, Toby Pohlen, Ross Nordeen, Kyle Kosic, Greg Yang, Guodong Zhang, and Zihang Dai as team members. All have worked on various AI projects in the past, such as Google’s DeepMind and OpenAI, the creator of chatbot ChatGPT.
During Wednesday’s discussion, Mr. Musk touched upon a number of issues regarding the potential implications and long-term consequences of advanced AI, telling lawmakers that he has been “banging the drum on AI safety for a long time” and that regulations are needed for AI to prevent companies from taking “dangerous” short-cuts when rolling our advanced technology.
He added that while he would “press pause” on the advancement of AI if he could, that option just does not seem realistic right now.
Mr. Musk also stressed that the artificial intelligence being developed by xAI would be “pro-humanity” and is still in the early stages before it can get to the same level as OpenAI.
Mr. Khanna agreed with Mr. Musk that a regulatory body overseeing AI advancement should be established, adding that it should be something similar to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or a commission of experts because Congress “lacks the knowledge” regarding the pros and cons of advanced AI.
Superintelligence Could ‘Unseat’ CCP
However, Mr. Gallagher disagreed, citing concerns that such an agency would simply not be able to keep up with constant changes owing to rapidly advancing technology.
Oversight of AI regulations requires “a more dynamic regulatory process with the technology like this where the pace of change is so quick,” Mr. Gallagher said.
“Even if we passed a sensible AI law this year that struck that balance … between oversight guardrails, but also the need to innovate—it might be outdated very quickly. So figuring out that dynamic regulatory model without stifling innovation, I think, is the core dilemma,” Mr. Gallagher added.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Mr. Musk also touched upon China—which is seen as a growing threat to the United States when it comes to the AI dominance race—after Mr. Gallagher shared his fears that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will use its increasingly advanced technology for evil to “perfect a technical totalitarian surveillance state.”
Responding to Mr. Gallagher’s concerns, Mr. Musk explained that he had spent time talking with senior leaders about AI safety and its potential dangers during his recent visit to Beijing in May.
The businessman said he had also told senior Chinese officials that if a digital superintelligence is created, it could effectively remove the need for the CCP.
“I think that did resonate,” Mr. Musk said. “No government wants to find itself unseated by a digital superintelligence so I think they (the CCP) actually are taking action on the regulatory front and are concerned about this as a risk.”
The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer also stressed that his understanding of China, following his visit in May, is that the government is “on team humanity” and “definitely interested in working on a cooperative international regulatory framework” for AI despite the distrust between Beijing and Washington.
Musk ‘Kind of Pro-China’
However, Mr. Gallagher again disagreed with Mr. Musk, stating that he remains “very skeptical that the CCP could be a constructive actor in any international framework,” regarding AI.
“What other international framework have they been a constructive actor in?” Mr. Gallagher said. “They’re bad actors.”
In response, Mr. Musk doubled down on his views of the CCP, stating that he is “kind of pro-China.”
“And I know this makes it sound like ‘Well, do you have all these vested interests in China?’ I’m like, I have some vested interests in China but honestly, I think China is underrated and I think the people of China are really awesome and there’s a lot of positive energy there and I think they want the same things as people in America do,” Mr. Musk said.
He also touched on the ongoing issue of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which the CCP claims is part of its own territory.
Last week, CCP leader Xi Jinping told the Chinese military to deepen war and combat planning in order to “increase the chances of victory in actual combat” as tensions between China and Taiwan deepen.
“That’s not to say that there aren’t some very significant disagreements and there’s obviously going to be a significant challenge on the Twaian question but on the stabile energy front, China’s done a lot to further electric vehicles in China … there’s a lot of solar power, a lot of wind … but China has been pushing quite hard on the sustainable front,” Mr. Musk told the lawmakers. “And I think ultimately once the very difficult question of Taiwan is resolved, I’m certainly positive that there will be positive relations between China and the rest of the world. ”
Mr. Musk also noted in the discussion that he believes “digital superintelligence” will exist within the next 5–6 years but that it would not necessarily be “smarter than the sum of all humans” adding that this was a “higher bar.”
The businessman concluded by explaining how the increasingly fast-paced advancement of AI keeps him up at night as he tries to “figure out how do we navigate to this to the best possible future for humanity.
