Calls grow for Elon Musk to lead US artificial intelligence policy: Report

Efforts to influence the policies of newly elected Donald Trump through Elon Musk are already underway, with artificial intelligence advocacy group Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) launching a petition to make Musk a special advisor on AI, The Verge reported.

“No one is better equipped to help the Trump Administration make America lead on AI than Elon Musk,” the report quoted the petition circulated by ARI as saying.

Former Democratic representative Brad Carson leads the ARI and claims that it doesn’t take any corporate funding.

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Why does ARI want Elon Musk to be an AI advisor?

Musk had been a leading critic of OpenAI, despite being one of the co-founders. After the release of ChatGPT, he signed a letter asking for a moratorium on the development of more advanced generative AI models. This was to implement safety measures.

However, he also runs his own AI company xAI, which made critics to claim his stances are mostly self-interested, the report read.

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Despite this, the ARI petition says it is possible to deal with the conflict of interest with “proper mechanisms.” ARI aims to get 10,000 signatures on the petition.

However, the report quoted ARI policy analyst David Robusto as having said that Musk’s “lack of specificity suggests his thinking on the topic is evolving and can still be shaped by public debate over the issue.”

Musk had previously claimed he would join the Trump administration in a role he created called the head of a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut costs for the US government.

However, Robusto also says that in such a role, Musk may spare agencies related to AI safety policy, like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), from cuts to federal spending.

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