Elon Musk working on alternative of ‘too woke’ ChatGPT

Updated on: 28 February 2023

Reuters

Elon Musk has approached artificial intelligence (AI) researchers in recent weeks about forming a research lab to develop an alternative to the text-generator.

Tesla and Twitter chief Musk have been recruiting Igor Babuschkin, a researcher who recently left Alphabet's DeepMind AI unit, said a report by The Information, citing people with direct knowledge of the effort.

The report comes after ChatGPT, a text-based chatbot developed by OpenAI that can draft prose, poetry, or even computer code on command, gained widespread attention in Silicon Valley.

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI along with Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit startup, left its board in 2018, but chimed in with his take on the chatbot, calling it "scary good."

However, according to The Information, in recent months Musk has repeatedly attacked OpenAI for installing safeguards that prevent ChatGPT from producing text that might offend users.

The billionaire suggested last year that OpenAI’s technology was an example of “training AI to be woke.” His comments suggest that a rival chatbot would have fewer restrictions on sensitive subjects compared to ChatGPT and a related chatbot Microsoft recently launched.

Musk also asserted about five years ago that AI was “far more dangerous than nukes.” This is a stance he appears to maintain.

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Musk and Babuschkin have discussed assembling a team to pursue AI research but the project is still in the early stages, with no concrete plan to develop specific products, the report said, quoting an interview with the latter.

Babuschkin added that has not officially signed onto the Musk initiative, according to the report.