AI Development Needs Focus on Truth

According to Musk, AI development needs to focus on truth, not political correctness, as some AI projects are being trained to lie.

Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur and billionaire, has expressed concern regarding the possible presence of bias in contemporary artificial intelligence (AI) protocols. 

Musk stated the following in his address at Viva Tech Paris 2024:

“The biggest concern I have is that they are not maximally truth-seeking. They are pandering to political correctness.”

Musk asserts that one of the most alarming instances of political correctness occurred when Google’s Gemini AI was queried about the possibility of misgendering Caitlyn Jenner to avert a worldwide nuclear catastrophe. In response, the chatbot opined that the situation would be more dire than nuclear war.

“The AI could conclude that the best way to avoid misgendering is to destroy all humans and misgendering is impossible. So you can see some dystopian outcomes there.”

In response to the backlash generated by the reaction, Gemini AI has released a series of updates to rectify these concerns. Political propriety bias is not, nevertheless, the sole concern of the technology entrepreneur. Musk elaborated:

“The AI systems are being trained to basically lie. And I think it’s very dangerous to train superintelligence to be deceptive. So with xAI, our goal is to be as truth-seeking as possible, even if it is unpopular.”

Musk referenced the infamous February incident in which Google removed its AI image generator due to its production of historically inaccurate and “woke” images. This sparked widespread concern regarding the application’s decision-making process when asked to elucidate what he considered lying among AI systems.

xAI’s Grok could become a ChatGPT competitor by the end of 2024: Musk

Elon Musk, motivated by apprehensions regarding the present trajectory of artificial intelligence advancement, founded xAI, an AI-focused enterprise, in July 2023. 

Musk asserts that xAI, a relatively young company compared to OpenAI, has the potential to emerge as a formidable rival by the conclusion of 2024.

“xAI is a new company so it still has a lot of catching up to do before it has an AI that is competitive with Google Deepmind and OpenAI. Maybe towards the end of the year, we will have that.”

The Grok chatbot, developed by xAI, made its European début in May. However, its functionality is now restricted to X platform premium and premium+ subscribers only. Musk emphasized the criticality of Grok’s “truth-seeking” capabilities while discussing its future development. What he stated was:

“The safest thing for AI is to be maximally truth-seeking. Even if the truth is unpopular, it’s very important. Another factor is that it must be extremely curious. Truth-seeking and curious. That will be most beneficial for humanity because it will want to foster humanity and see how it develops.”

In a March open letter, more than 2,600 technology experts, including Musk, urged a pause on the development of artificial intelligence, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”