Elon Musk’s recent calls to put a pause on AI development has recently piqued people’s interest. According to a veteran venture capitalist, this may not be a humanitarian request, but a ploy to help Musk catch up with the rest of the competition in the race towards developing more powerful AI technologies.
Vinod Khosla, a tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist, told Bloomberg that he suspected Musk’s call was so he can have time to kickstart his own race towards AI development. Rumours started floating when Musk bought a significant number of GPUs back in March. GPUs are often used to work on large AI models.
In 2015, Musk attempted to found OpenAI, an AI technology company. It was nevertheless rejected by his co-founder, Sam Altman. This rejection reportedly prompted Musk to take over Twitter and create his own opportunities to jumpstart his own AI race.
Musk has been vocal about the potential of AI technology before taking leadership in Twitter. In 2016, he warned people of its potential danger and proposed they should get an implant like Neuralink to combat its risks.
Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI”, seemed to resonate with Musk’s view and resigned from Google earlier this week. During The New York Times interview he expressed his worry about the power of AI and the potential result if not properly monitored.
With its enormous potential, the race for AI has become a heated competition among the biggest companies and entrepreneurs. It appears that Musk’s call for a break could be a way for him to gain his own footing in the race.
