In December, Elon Musk was annoyed by the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and stepped on the gas.

He had learned of the existence of a relationship between OpenAI, the startup company behind popular chatbot ChatGPT, and Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion in October. OpenAI has been licensed to Twitter’s data — a stream of each tweet — for about $2 million a year to help develop ChatGPT, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr Musk felt the artificial intelligence company wasn’t paying Twitter enough.

Mr Musk therefore blocked OpenAI’s access to Twitter data.

Since then, Mr. Musk has increased his own activities in the field of AI while publicly denouncing the dangers of the technology. He is in talks with Jimmy Ba, a researcher and professor at the University of Toronto, to start a new AI company called X.AI, three people with knowledge of the matter have claimed. He hired senior AI researchers from Google’s DeepMind on Twitter.

He has also spoken publicly about creating a ChatGPT rival that would produce political content without restrictions.

These actions are part of Mr. Musk’s long and complex history with AI, which is informed by his conflicting views on whether the technology will benefit humanity or destroy it. While recently reviving his AI projects, he also signed an open letter last month calling for a six-month hiatus in development of the technology because of the “profound risks it poses to society.”

Disillusioned with OpenAI

Although Mr. Musk is opposed to OpenAI and plans to compete with it, he helped found the AI ​​Lab as a non-profit organization in 2015. He has since said he is disillusioned with OpenAI, which no longer operates as a non-profit organization and develops technologies that he believes take sides in political and social debates.

Mr. Musk’s approach to AI boils down to doing it himself. The 51-year-old billionaire, who also runs electric-car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, has long believed his own AI efforts offer better and safer solutions than those of its competitors, say people who have discussed the issues with him.

“He believes that AI will be a big game changer, and if mismanaged, it will be catastrophic,” said Anthony Aguirre, a theoretical cosmologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz and founder of the Future of Life Institute, who Organization behind the open letter.

Mr Musk and Mr Ba, known for creating a popular algorithm for training AI systems, did not respond to requests for comment. Their talks are continuing, the three people familiar with the matter said.

Hannah Wong, a spokeswoman for OpenAI, said that although the company is now generating profits for investors, it is still governed by a non-profit organization and its profits are capped.

contradictions

After launching ChatGPT in November, Musk became increasingly critical of OpenAI. “We don’t want it to be some kind of profit-maximizing demon from hell,” he said in an interview with recently fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week.

Mr Musk repeated his complaints about the dangers of AI and accelerated his own efforts to develop it. At an event for Tesla investors last month, he urged regulators to protect the company from AI, even though his car company has used AI systems to push the boundaries of autonomous vehicle technology, which has been implicated in fatal accidents .

The same day, Mr Musk suggested in a tweet that Twitter would use its own data to train ChatGPT-like technology. Twitter has hired two researchers from DeepMind, two people with knowledge of the hire said. The Information and Insider previously reported details of these settings and Twitter’s AI efforts.

During last week’s interview with Carlson, Musk said that OpenAI is no longer used to verify the power of tech giants.

Musk wanted to build TruthGPT, he said, “a maximum truth-seeking AI trying to understand the nature of the universe.”

Last month, Mr. Musk registered X.AI. The startup is incorporated in Nevada, according to its registration documents, which also mention that the company’s directors are Mr. Musk and its chief financial officer, Jared Birchall. These documents were published by the Wall Street Journal.

Experts who have spoken to Mr. Musk about AI believe he is sincere in his concerns about the dangers of the technology, even though he is developing it himself. Others believe his position is influenced by other motivations, including his efforts to promote and benefit from his businesses.

“He says the robots are going to kill us,” said Ryan Calo, a professor at the University of Washington Law School who has attended AI events alongside Mr. Musk. “A car built by his company has already killed someone. »

This article was originally published in New York Times.