Elon Musk suggests the AI race should stop for six months

Big names in tech want to stop testing A.I. systems that are more powerful than GPT-4 for six months. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla (TSLA) and Twitter, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, and Andrew Yang, a 2020 presidential candidate, are three of the more than 1,000 people who signed an open letter saying that artificial intelligence systems can pose "profound risks to society and humanity."

Dave Briggs of Yahoo Finance explains why Elon Musk is not the right person to spread this message, even though the letter does raise some good points. Seana Smith from Yahoo Finance joins us to talk about the race to build AI.

DAVE BRIGGS: Elon Musk wants us to stop working on AI for six months. In an open letter from the Future of Life Institute, Mr. Musk, Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, 2020 Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang, and dozens of other tech leaders wrote, quote, "Powerful AI systems should not be built until we are sure that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable."

These are all real concerns, but this guy, Elon Musk, might not be the best person to tell the world about them. Take, for example, Tesla's programme for fully self-driving cars, which is the subject of a class action case in a federal court in San Francisco. I asked ChatGPT what it thought of Elon's self-driving cars. And it told me, "There have been several accidents involving them, some of which have been fatal."

There are worries that technology isn't yet good enough to keep riders and other people on the road safe. Chat mentioned legal and regulatory problems, as well as ethical concerns about how decisions will be made in situations where there are no clear ethical solutions. This letter also asks if we should let machines send propaganda and lies through our information sources. I've heard that somewhere before.

Since he took over, has Elon looked at Twitter? It's the perfect place for lies and propaganda to grow. So maybe Elon should just sit this one out. As for taking a break for six months, think about how ChatGPT got 100 million active users in just two months, making it the fastest-growing consumer app ever.

It is not possible to slow down AI now that everyone in the tech world has stepped on the gas. It's the most important news for investors in years, or even decades. Bill Gates just said that it is just as important as the Internet or the cell phone. This multibillion dollar genie can't be put back in the bottle.

And, Seana, Bill Gates wrote in his letter that we do need some meaning for the word "guardrails" here. But should Elon Musk be the one to tell people about this? If he wasn't on that letter, I might have been more likely to take it seriously.

SEANA SMITH: I'm really surprised, too. Dave, you're right that it's funny that he was one of the people who signed this letter. Because you bring up a good point: there has been a lot of false information and a lot of worry about some of his technological advances in the past, as well as a lot of worry about what information he has put on Twitter and what Twitter in general shows every day.

But we've heard that people are worried about AI and have questions about it. A few weeks ago, we had someone from the Chamber of Commerce on the show to talk about how AI should be regulated. So I think this case has a lot going for it. But you're right—given that so many companies are joining in and that ChatGPT was so popular—you said 100 million people by the end of January—you're probably right.

In two months, said DAVE BRIGGS.

SEANA SMITH: That's just crazy, and it shows how popular this technology is and how much room it has to grow.

DAVE BRIGGS: A little bit more irony-- Elon Musk was one of the people who started OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT. So, in a way, he wants to kill his own monster. But, look, AI does raise some legitimate worries. Will they take work away?

Without a doubt, they will take away some jobs. But again, this genie can't be put back in the bottle now. So they should be pushing for real limits and for the tech community and the government to work together to figure this out, maybe by making some kind of council. Because stopping it is a silly idea.

SEANA SMITH: No, and just look at how people reacted in so many of the last quarter's results reports and earnings calls. Any company, or at least most companies, that talked about artificial intelligence saw their stock go up the next day. So it's something that makes sense to Wall Street and makes sense to investors. I don't think that any of these companies will slow down.

SEANA SMITH: No, and just look at how people reacted in so many of the last quarter's results reports and earnings calls. Any company, or at least most companies, that talked about artificial intelligence saw their stock go up the next day. So it's something that makes sense to Wall Street and makes sense to investors. I don't think that any of these companies will slow down.

DAVE BRIGGS: I just got an email from OpenTable about how AI will be used to make dinner reservations, and an email from my grocery store about how AI can be used to do food shopping.

SEANA SMITH: It's all over.

DAVE BRIGGS: Now it's too late.