Elon Musk says people should be cautious with AI because the tech is 'a danger to the public'
- Elon Musk called AI a danger to the public during an interview with Tucker Carlson.
- He said AI was more dangerous than mismanaged aircraft design or bad car production.
Elon Musk is still quite concerned about advanced artificial intelligence.
In an interview on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," he said people should be "cautious with AI" and advised that there should be government oversight because the tech is "a danger to the public."
"I think we'll have a better chance of advanced AI being beneficial to humanity in that circumstance," he added.
In a report based on the interview, Fox News quoted Musk as saying: "AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production. In the sense that it has the potential — however small one may regard that probability — but it is non-trivial and has the potential of civilization destruction."
It's far from the first time the billionaire has discussed the potential risks of advanced AI. He's previously compared AI with nuclear warheads, told Tesla investors that the tech stresses him out, and criticized OpenAI, a company he cofounded.
Despite this, Musk is reportedly in the middle of establishing his own generative AI project. The Tesla CEO is already recruiting engineers from top research labs including Alphabet's DeepMind for a company called X.AI, per the Financial Times.
Musk spoke briefly about plans for his own AI development in the interview, telling Carlson he planned to start something called "TruthGPT" or "a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe."
He said: "I think this might be the best path to safety in the sense that an AI that cares about understanding the universe is unlikely to annihilate humans because we are an interesting part of the universe."
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.