Scientist: Musk could actually push Trump to go for tougher AI regulation

Even though US Republicans traditionally despise government regulation, Elon Musk might persuade Donald Trump to implement tougher safety standards for AI – something that the billionaire consistently supports.

Having invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Trump’s campaign, Musk is bound to enjoy enormous influence on a new administration and could push Trump to pay more attention to the dangers of AI, Max Tegmark, a scientist who’s worked closely with Musk before, said.

According to Tegmark, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Musk is sincerely concerned about the unrestrained development of AI.

And there’s proof. This year, the billionaire supported a failed AI safety bill in California, vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom who caved under pressure from big tech firms and venture capitalists.

And in 2023, Musk – even though he could be called a committed libertarian – joined a call for an immediate pause on the creation of large AI models in order to understand their capabilities and dangers.

Back then, many critics called the open letter ludicrous and said it was signed by “attention addicts.” But Tegmark told The Guardian at the Web Summit in Lisbon that Musk could persuade Trump to introduce standards that prevent the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

“He might help Trump understand that an AGI race is a suicide race. <...> I do think it’s not completely implausible he could persuade Trump that AI needs to be controlled,” said Tegmark.

It’s difficult to imagine Musk isn’t going to be looking for opportunities to help his businesses whether he enters the new administration or not, though. He founded his own AI startup, xAI, in 2023, with the goal of “understanding the true nature of the universe.”

Musk said in July 2023 that the world needed to worry about the possibility of a “Terminator future” of superintelligence where machines are capable of evading human control.

On the other hand, even if Musk decided to advise Trump on AI, the ideological mountain might be too steep. The president-elect has vowed to repeal Joe Biden’s executive order on AI safety as a set of restrictions that “imposes radical leftwing ideas on the development of this technology.”