"In the early 2010s he realized that AI was on a track to become perhaps the most powerful technology of all time. But he had deep suspicion that if it were to fall under the control of powerful profit-driven forces, humanity would suffer. Musk had been an early investor in DeepMind, the UK-based lab that was ahead of the pack in pursuing artificial general intelligence."
"Fast-forward to today. OpenAI is worth a half a trillion dollars, or maybe $750 billion, and its for-profit arm has become a public benefit corporation. Musk, the world's richest human, runs his own for-profit AI company, xAI. So much for nonprofit labs leading the way. But even the most panicked Cassandra of a decade ago likely didn't imagine that advanced AI would be controlled by a single, interlocking, money-seeking behemoth."
"That's what we have today. Even more concerning, this interlinked complex is funded in part by overseas powers and supported by the US government, which seems to prioritize winning over safety. This rococo collection of partnerships, mergers, funding arrangements, government initiatives, and strategic investments links the fate of virtually every big player in the AI-o-sphere. I call this entity the Blob."
Elon Musk invested early in DeepMind but severed ties after Google's acquisition, believing profit-driven control of AI would harm humanity. Musk helped create OpenAI to prioritize human benefit over shareholder profit. OpenAI later developed a for-profit arm, grew into a massive company valued at hundreds of billions, and became part public benefit corporation. Musk now runs his own for-profit AI company, xAI. Advanced AI is increasingly concentrated within an interlocking, money-seeking complex funded partly by foreign powers and backed by the US government, with partnerships and investments linking major industry players into a single entity called the Blob.
Read at WIRED
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