Elon Musk has been approaching artificial intelligence researchers to discuss the development of a new lab to compete with ChatGPT, OpenAI’s popular chatbot, according to a recent report from The Information.
Musk would like to enlist recently departed Google DeepMindAI lab researcher, Igor Babuschkin, to lead this project, according to The Information. Babuschkin indicated to The Information that this venture is in its early stages and not much is cemented yet, including his participation in it.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but he left the company in 2019 and has expressed dissatisfaction with its evolution. One reason Musk has critiqued ChatGPT is its perceived political correctness. He even implied in a tweet that OpenAI is dangerously “training AI to be woke.”
Substantiating this implication, the Daily Caller News Foundation’s John Hugh DeMastri reported in January 2023 that “ChatGPT appears to generally favor left-leaning positions when asked about a variety of cultural and political issues.”
A Musk AI lab would be expected to have less of a filter when it comes to controversial topics compared to other chatbots. (RELATED: Researchers Perceive Liberal Bias Built Into ChatGPT)
BOCA CHICA BEACH, TX – AUGUST 25: SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaks during a T-Mobile and SpaceX joint event on August 25, 2022 in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. The two companies announced plans to work together to provide T-Mobile cellular service using Starlink satellites. (Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images)
On Feb. 17, Musk responded to a Twitter user who implied Musk is a hypocrite by noting he has stated that AI is one of the major risks to civilization and that it needs to be regulated, yet he also contributed to the founding of OpenAI.
However, Musk claimed the direction OpenAI has gone down is nowhere near what he had planned for it to be. He tweeted, “OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it ‘Open’ AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.