Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been described as an artificial intelligence alarmist even as the tech billionaire invested in AI research. Now, Musk is leaving the board of a non-profit AI research company he co-founded in 2015 due to potential conflicts with his ongoing work at Tesla.
The research group, OpenAI, said in a blog post this week that Musk will leave its board in order to avoid any conflicts with his work at Tesla and its AI-supported autonomous driving technology. “As Tesla continues to become more focused on AI, this will eliminate a potential future conflict for Elon,” OpenAI said in the blog post. Musk will remain an advisor to the group and he will continue to donate to OpenAI’s research efforts.
Over the past couple of years, OpenAI has worked to develop applications of AI in fields such as robotics and gaming, among others. Its goal is to independently research artificial intelligence “in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return,” the group said in 2015.
At the same time, Musk’s Tesla continues to push deeper into the world of AI research itself as it develops machine learning technology for autonomous vehicles. He has also been vocal about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence—even describing AI as “the greatest risk we face as a civilization” while engaging in a war of words with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over their disagreement on the subject. Among Musk’s concerns regarding AI are the idea that artificial intelligence could become dangerous if it evolves past the point of human intelligence, and that unregulated AI could potentially be used to start global conflicts by “manipulating information.”
Musk created OpenAI with technology executives and investors including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Y Combinator’s Sam Altman and Jessica Livingston, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. With additional support from corporate backers such as Amazon and Infosys, the group formed with over $1 billion in donations.
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OpenAI also announced a group of new donors this week, including former Olympic athletes Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen-Eaton as well as Skype founder Jaan Tallinn.