
Is Elon Musk Really Anti-AI?
I’ve been seeing too much in the news lately about how Elon Musk is going apocalyptic apeshit, spouting the dumbest alarmist extremes of what the human mind imagines AI could be capable of. We’ve all seen Terminator and most of us with common sense know it’s fiction. Is Musk delusional? Does he know something about AI that we don’t?
Sigh.
What people tend to forget is that billionaires aren’t like us. There are only a few reasons he would shout fearmongering rhetoric about AI from the rooftops, and none of those reasons are because he cares deeply about the future of mankind. That’s not how rich people operate; they would build underground bunkers and let all us poor folk get laid to waste by the mechanical armies first. Do you think underground bunkers for the elite wealthy don’t already exist?
I’m going to use Warren Buffett as a prime example. When he came out against the Dakota Access Pipeline, people hailed him as a leftist hero. But again, rich people aren’t like us, they rarely do things out of the goodness of their hearts; most of the oil in this country is transported, not by pipeline, but by train. And who owns the trains that would lose money if the pipeline went into operation? You guessed it — Warren Buffett!
It might be shocking and disheartening to grasp that rich people only tend to do things out of their own interests, because good people try to see the good in others, but while I’m not denying that genuinely good rich people exist… because, law of averages and all that, but dollars to donuts, Elon Musk isn’t one of them. It could be argued that most people are the same way to a lesser degree, but that’s a whole other article.
Let me lay out the facts for you here.
There is a huge race to get a workable self-driving vehicle on the road. In the tech world, setting the industry standard could mean life or death for a company. Musk owns Telsa, and he is in direct competition with Google, BMW and Toyota for that spotlight. The goal for getting their models on the road is 2018, so the stakes are extremely high. But developing a self-driving car is only part of the equation. According to an excellent article by eastidahonews.com:
“The cameras and sensors to help cars detect obstacles and avoid collisions are supplied by companies like Mobileye and Civil Maps. Data-mapping company Here is another business working to create digital maps that act as a data bank for cars to refer to (in addition to sensors). Digital mapping, however, is not an easy feat — the U.S. alone has over 4 million miles of road.”
What company is known for digitally mapping roads and swallowing up entire industries to fit neatly under it’s convenient (and often free) umbrella? Google, of course. So when this technology does emerge on the market, who will likely have a more robust, affordable and streamlined product? Google, not Tesla. So knowing this, Musk has taken to changing the narrative about AI, making it too scary for most people when it does come out. We’ve learned from our current politics that fearbaiting works. It’s low, and cruel, but effective. And it will hurt Google’s bottom line. In the world of profiteering billionaires, if you can’t beat ’em, smear ’em. Mindless consumer capitalism extends to ideas as well.
Still skeptical? Don’t take my word for it, Musk said it himself in this speech at Recode’s Code Conference. According to The Verge, “when asked whether he was worried specifically about the efforts of big tech players like Google and Facebook currently pivoting to AI research. ‘I won’t name names,’ Musk said, ‘but there’s only one.’ The Verge journalist pressed the question, wondering whether the company that kept the Tesla boss up at night was not one currently preoccupied with developing its own car. With a wan smile and a lengthy glance at the floor, Musk repeated his answer, suggesting his eye was on Google. ‘There’s only one.’”
Billionaires aren’t like us. It’s always about making and keeping their wealth. Always keep this in mind when listening to their bullshit.
This is always the case. Where did the climate denial movement come from? Conservative think tanks, funded by oil tycoons like the Koch Brothers. They sink millions into buying politicians and steering the conversation into anti-science in the same way that Musk is doing, and those millions ultimately save them trillions. Imagine how much they’d have to spend if they were forced to change over all their equipment to accommodate green energy? If you can’t beat ’em, smear ‘em.
I will leave you with this amazing TED talk by Anil Seth, whose educated assertion is that intelligence isn’t enough to create independent consciousness; we have it because we are biological creatures.
The Terminator and other sci-fi movies are great, but they are fiction and deserve to be left in the realm of fiction, just like Elon Musk’s fearmongering that the robots are coming to kill us.
