Elon Musk has clashed often with securities regulators and highway safety authorities, but there's one area the Tesla and Twitter chief says the government should regulate now: artificial intelligence.
"AI stresses me out," Musk said near the end of a more than three-hour presentation to Tesla investors about company plans this week.
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"I don't see AI helping us make cars any time soon," he said. "At that point ... there's no point in any of us working."
Earlier this week, Musk appeared to confirm via Twitter reports that he is recruiting a team of AI technologists to build a competitor to OpenAI's text-based ChatGPT, backed by Microsoft Corp, and similar systems under development at Alphabet Inc's Google, Meta Platforms Inc and other large technology platforms.
Earlier in February, Musk said in Dubai, "AI is one of the greatest risks to the future of civilization."
His words are more important today, as the rise of ChatGPT threatens to disrupt the job market with more sophisticated, human-like writing. Musk is the co-founder of OpenAI, the US startup now partially owned by Microsoft Corp, that developed ChatGPT, a so-called generative AI tool that provides human-like responses to user input. Musk added about the development of ChatGPT but he stressed that "there are great dangers in it."
"Honestly, I think AI safety should be regulated," Musk said. "I think it's actually a bigger risk to society than cars and planes".
Shortly after mentioning the development of ChatGPT, Musk spoke to attendees at the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He added that while cars, planes, and medicine must comply with legal safety standards, AI still lacks rules and regulations to govern its development.
