Elon Musk on why AI bosses should regulate themselves | The Economist

Last week, Demis Hassabis. came out with a proposal. for a private-public regulator. Do you think you guys. should be working more actively. to get something in place. to control the risks. or do you think. that's impossible too. My recommendation to Demis. was that the most immediate. thing that we could do is to. have the leading AI companies, at least just meet. or have some sort of call. once every few weeks. once every few weeks. And just discuss. And just discuss. And just discuss. And just discuss. any safety and security issues.

But why haven't you done that yet? I mean, you don’t. all like each other. very much. But you’re also all competing, you all want to be first. Yes, but that’s where I think. the competitors can keep. each other honest. So meaning... I think its quite difficult. for someone in the government. who doesn't have a deep. technical understanding. and isn't driving the. frontier of AI. to know whether something. should be released or not. However, the competitors.

I think can if given. a week or two. to review a new model and highlight. issues and have an incentive. to keep... all the competitors. have an incentive. to keep the others honest. You guys, you're insulting. each other on. social media constantly. So do you think. you can do that. with people that you dislike? Where there seems to be such. kind of personal vitriol. between some of these leaders? Yes, well I’m not a fan of. Sam Altman because. if you started a non-profit.

that was meant to be. an open-source AI company. owned by the world and it. somehow got turned into. an $800bn for-profit company. with closed source, I think you’d be like. well, wait a second, that’s. the exact opposite of what. I donated the money for. That's my issue. I think it's a legitimate one. And then Dario, I think. also is not a fan of. Sam Altman because. because he felt, in fact, the reason the Anthropic team.

left OpenAI. is because they didn't trust. Sam Altman. Otherwise, Anthropic. wouldn't exist, they would still be at OpenAI. I think Dario is. principled person. I think he cares. about things a lot, cares about the future of. the world and I think. everyone I’ve met at Anthropic. so far has been... No one’s set off my evil detector. They always seem like they're. well-intentioned. And the road to hell is, I think, mostly paved. with bad intentions.

There were a few well-intentioned. paving stones in there. So we don’t. want to be complacent. But at the end of the day. if we have to talk we’ll talk. Set aside our personal differences. for the good of the world.