Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Twitter, had plans to buy AI lab DeepMind from Google at the end of 2013, out of fear that Larry Page, who was then CEO of Google, may use the advanced AI in the wrong way. Musk’s plans did not reach the DeepMind board, according to a new report.
DeepMind, founded in London in 2010, is a respected AI lab best known for developing artificial intelligence programs that can learn games, and beat human players. This capability was demonstrated when a DeepMind program beat a human champion in the strategy game Go. Google ended up acquiring DeepMind in 2014, using the AI lab to supplement its own AI efforts.
Recently, Google announced that DeepMind will be combining with its own AI unit, Google Brain, in order to “significantly accelerate” progress on AI projects. Musk, however, has been very vocal about the dangers of AI; he believes it can lead to “civilization destruction,” and has criticized OpenAI (a company he was formerly involved with) for rolling out tools such as ChatGPT that can be biased.
Google, DeepMind, and Musk have yet to comment on the reports about his attempted acquisition. Musk is still reportedly pursuing AI projects of his own, as indicated by an April report which revealed that he purchased thousands of graphics processing units for an AI project at Twitter.
DeepMind is now regarded as an integral part of Google’s AI ambitions and initiatives. The company’s AI research is helping to both support and fuel its search engine, along with other applications and services. In 2021, DeepMind partnered with Google’s health care suite to create a system designed to help patients get quicker access to their medical data.
As for Elon Musk, he has had ambitions with AI since at least 2013, when the attempted AI acquisition sparked. Since then, he has become increasingly vocal about his concerns on the implications of advanced AI, while also progressing AI projects of his own. His recent purchase of 10,000 graphics processing units points towards an ongoing effort to work on an AI project, though specifics are unclear.
