SpaceX founder Elon Musk addresses members of the media during a press conference announcing new developments of the Crew Dragon reusable spacecraft, at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, Oct. 10, 2019.
Philip Pacheco | Afp | Getty Images
Elon Musk called for the top artificial intelligence companies to work together and test each other’s models before they’re released to the public, as some of the industry’s leaders warn of the technology’s dangers and push for greater government regulation.
Speaking at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Monday, the SpaceX CEO said SpaceX’s xAI business, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and “three or four of the leading Chinese companies” should let rivals run a “test harness” on their models to evaluate their safety.
“So, you know, instead of grading your own homework, you would at least have competitors grading your homework and raising the alarm if they see concerns,” Musk said.
The debate around how to regulate AI has intensified after the leaders of Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies spent the weekend warning about the technology’s harms and called for a slowdown in model development. Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were among the tech leaders who backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s proposal for a slowdown, marking a rare show of unity.
The push from top AI leaders came amid a broader warning about the fate of humanity as AI researchers sounded the alarm last week, sparked by a post from Jacob Coxon, who announced that he quit his job at Anthropic.
Coxon, who also worked at OpenAI, wrote that the leading AI labs are “gambling with our lives.” Researchers quickly chimed in, with Evan Hubinger, an alignment lead at Anthropic, also backing Coxon’s statements.
“Jacob is correct here — we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade,” Hubinger wrote.
The Trump administration has pushed back on tech leaders’ calls for greater limits on AI. President Donald Trump pushed out a flurry of posts on Truth Social on Monday, referring to fears over AI as a “hoax” and a “scam.”
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC on Tuesday that the private sector is the “right place” to address concerns with AI. He said the government continues to monitor the industry and will use “law enforcement when necessary to make sure that the firms are acting responsibly.”
Musk said Monday that his peer-review method may not be a perfect solution, but he added, “The odds that you will find issues are dramatically greater.”
SpaceX acquired Musk’s AI business xAI in February, then completed an acquisition of AI code-generation startup Cursor for $60 billion in August. The merged entity is working to make SpaceXAI’s Grok models and tools more relevant to developers, in line with competing products from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
Musk acknowledged that rival AI labs that compete with SpaceX haven’t agreed to his proposal. Amodei, in his essay, suggested that AI labs could agree to third-party technology assessments from “embedded evaluators” who would verify safety practices.
Trump has suggested that any attempts to pace the development of AI would give China the upper hand in developing the technology. Amodei echoed those concerns over the weekend, calling it the “toughest dilemma.”
While Musk is arguing for industry self-regulation, his companies have sought to block states’ laws governing AI. For example, xAI sued the state of California, trying to negate its AI Training Data Transparency Act (AB 2013), and sued Minnesota over a law that bans so-called nudify apps in the state.
SpaceX’s AI unit is facing myriad probes and lawsuits after its Grok image generators were used to create and distribute so-called deepfake porn, depicting child sexual abuse or intimate images based on photos or videos of real adults who did not consent.
Shares of SpaceX closed down 3.15% on Tuesday amid the national conversation about AI risks and regulation.
A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday called AI companies’ push for a slowdown “fear mongering,” according to an English translation of their remarks published by Reuters.
“What I’m suggesting here is it’s a step in the right direction and it’s something that we do quickly,” Musk said. “I think it’s probably something that China would agree to.”
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed reporting
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