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Elon Musk: Short introduction
Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971. A boy who was initially shy and on his own, he began to get into science fiction novels and subjects such as Physics and Engineering at a very young age. Despite being considered a bit of a “mad scientist,” no one can deny the genius of Elon Musk and especially the importance of his entrepreneurial works. He is the head of several companies such as SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, OpenAI and Tesla. This officially makes him the richest man on planet Earth with an impressive 200 billion in assets!
But what does one of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs think about robots and AI?
Early Approaches to AI and Robots
Elon first interfaces into this world in 2012 after meeting Neuroscientist Demis Hassabis at a conference. It will be Demis himself who will introduce him to his project called “DeepMind” which came about by taking inspiration from Alan Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” with the goal of create machines capable of learning and thinking like human beings. Elon, of course, could not help but be fascinated by this project. It was during a conversation with Hassabis he began to develop his first doubts and fears about artificial intelligence and robotics. He then decides to invest 5 million dollars in “DeepMind” to be sure to keep it under control.
The situation changes, however, after a meeting with Larry Page…
Elon's fear: well-founded or not?
Elon and Larry Page (founder of Google) began a heated discussion regarding this topic in that according to Page, one should not worry too much about Robots and Artificial Intelligence but rather, try to push the development and research regarding them as much as possible. As much as he may be considered a fanboy of these topics Elon takes a different view. The AI and Robot project fascinates him incredibly but in his heart he harbors quite a few doubts and fears about the topic… The human species, according to Musk, must be preserved, which is precisely why it is necessary to place limitations and make human beings capable of controlling Robots to the best of their ability to prevent them from wiping out humanity.
Elon is disappointed, however, to discover that his friend Demis is planning to sell “DeepMind” to Google and, as a result, go completely against what those were the assumptions Musk had talked about. After the final acquisition took place in 2014, the South African entrepreneur decided that he could not sit on his hands, the fear of completely losing humankind is too strong to be arrested, he must fight his new “enemies” intent on destroying the earth.
He therefore decides to found HIS company on Robots and AI.
NeuraLink and OpenAi
Not many people know this, but the new and very famous company OpenAi (creator of ChatGPT for short) was founded by Elon and Sam Altman in 2015, initially created to keep the phenomenon under control, it would eventually result in another sadly unsuccessful experience for Elon as the project did not go quite as he had hoped and he found himself forced to “move” his projects within his other already-known companies, one of which is precisely Neuralink.
Neuralink was officially born in 2016 and in this case, the goals do not stop at a simple robot…. Musk’s idea is to implement a chip inside the human brain to make man himself, for a certain grade, a full-fledged robot. Apart from all the criticism and doubts raised, Elon certainly had an ambitious project that would, in theory, allow humans to control any “rebellions” by robots gone mad.
This new project, however, has been anything but a failure. Neuralink scientists were able to successfully implant a chip in the Noland Arbaugh’s brain in 2024! The operation was a total success and allowed Noland to be able to use his PC simply through the power of thought!
He may not yet be able to control robots gone mad, but the results are no small feat.
Tesla and Optimus
The most ambitious Robot project, however, was moved to another Musk company… We are talking about Tesla.
Elon’s decision was clear: He wanted a robot with human features that would not put fear into people and would not want to kill other humans. Thus was born the project to create “Optimus” Tesla’s first robot in 2021. During the study to create his first Robot, Musk and his collaborators realized how complex the human body was and especially how difficult it was to create a robot that had both typical human features, such as: arms, hands, legs, etc. As well as one that was capable of doing things that were out of the ordinary and unbelievable. Especially with a boss like Elon Musk, it was not easy to be able to comply with his every request… So the project needed a substantial amount of time and money.
As the project began to take shape there remained 2 fundamental questions to be answered: How do we make it profitable? and how do we prevent any tampering with malicious interventions?
For the first question, the answer is very simple. The robot designed by Tesla is so strong and efficient that it is capable of performing all the tasks that are commonly assigned to humans within the company itself, this would contribute to an incredible production momentum for the car company!
The second question, however, is a bit more complex….
The realization of a method capable of allowing full control to humans has always been paramount to Elon, no one must be able to take control of it illegally for malicious purposes, and above all, the Robot must not be able to disobey and harm others of its own free will.
Still, a way is being designed to be able to be “certain” that this Robot is 100% safe and non-threatening.
What is certain, however, is that its presentation that took place in 2022 was incredible! All the engineers present at the presentation were left open-mouthed by that robot capable of walking, dancing, greeting the audience, and overall… Behave like a human being.
Conclusion
The topic of AI and Robots is certainly topical and very important, in this case, I want to express my personal opinion and side with Elon Musk.
We cannot pretend that the risk of a “rebellion” of this technology is impossible or potentially disastrous. It is incumbent on anyone working in the industry to think about the possible terrible backstories this story could take, working on the safety and security of humankind cannot but be considered something stupid or even unnecessary!
My heartiest congratulations to Elon Musk for his goals to date.