Elon Musk Says China Intends to Regulate AI

After visiting China and meeting with top officials in the country, Elon Musk notes that the country intends to regulate AI. AI poses a great potential threat if laboratories are allowed to run uncontrolled, without adhering to any rules and principles.

China intends to introduce rules to regulate AI

Elon Musk made a two-day business visit to China last week, where he met with the country’s top officials. He did not go into details of the discussions during these meetings but did mention some of the topics. In particular, Musk said that Chinese officials told him about plans to introduce new rules on artificial intelligence to regulate the industry. He felt that discussions on this topic were productive.

“Something that is worth noting is that on my recent trip to China, with the senior leadership there, we had, I think, some very productive discussions on artificial intelligence risks, and the need for some oversight or regulation,” Musk said during Twitter Spaces on Monday. “And my understanding from those conversations is that China will be initiating AI regulation in China,” he added.

The AI race is gaining momentum

AI labs around the world are starting to race forward. At the moment, companies have been rushing to develop artificial intelligence services that can mimic human speech since San Francisco-based OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, which was a great success.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015. He left the board of directors three years later due to conflicts with its management. Among other things, one issue was around the attitude towards AI safety, according to two people who were involved with OpenAI at the time. Shortly thereafter, the organization turned into a commercial start-up and attracted a $1 billion investment from Microsoft. As to why Musk left OpenAI, he tweeted in 2019:

“I had to focus on solving a painfully large number of engineering & manufacturing problems at Tesla (especially) & SpaceX.

Also, Tesla was competing for some of the same people as OpenAI & I didn’t agree with some of what OpenAI team wanted to do. Add that all up & it was just better to part ways on good terms.”

Elon Musk worries about the threat of AI

Elon Musk has always expressed concern about the potential dangers of AI and has been keen to find ways to protect humanity. He has also publicly criticized OpenAI. Musk said the company had become less transparent and too commercially oriented in its pursuit of advanced AI. He is concerned that models such as GPT-4 may write lies and show political bias, which has been found by many independent people.

The global community is also concerned about the uncontrolled development of AI

In March, Musk joined a call by more than 1,000 experts to put an end to the creation of giant artificial intelligence “digital minds.” Tech leaders urged to wait until the world was sure that “effects will be positive and risks manageable.”