The tech billionaire and British PM are due to broadcast a live conversation after the global AI summit.
Image source, ReutersElon Musk and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are to do a live interview together on Thursday evening.
The tech billionaire is expected to attend the global summit on artificial intelligence ahead of this meeting.
The summit, at Bletchley Park, hopes to bring together AI experts and global leaders to discuss the potential risks of artificial intelligence.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are due to attend.
The BBC also understands Open AI’s Sam Altman and Meta’s Nick Clegg will join the gathering – as well as a host of other tech leaders.
At least two of the so-called godfathers of AI will be attending.
Yoshua Bengio has confirmed to the BBC he will be there. It is also understood that Prof Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, will be there.
In contrast to the other godfathers Mr LeCun has described fears that AI could pose a threat to humanity as “ridiculously preposterous” and has posted critically about the summit on X (formerly Twitter).
Revolutionary but dangerous
In a post on X, Mr Sunak said: “In conversation with Elon Musk. After the AI Safety Summit. Thursday night on X.”
It was revealed on Monday that X, which Mr Musk acquired for $44bn (£36bn), is now worth $19bn, according to internal correspondence first reported by Fortune.
Mr Musk launched his own AI venture, xAI in June. He was also one of the original backers of OpenAI but parted ways with the firm.
There is a chance that Rishi Sunak is walking into a lion’s den here in agreeing to a live-streamed conversation with Elon Musk on Musk’s own platform, X.
Musk has not yet been vocal about the UK’s new Online Safety Act, which has only just gained Royal Assent, but X is firmly in scope to be bound by its laws and that may not sit well with the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”.
What Musk says and what he actually does are not always in harmony: he has called for a pause on AI development but also registered his own AI company and has reportedly been buying large quantities of the specialist chips required.
He will has strong views of his own on how AI should progress. He has a large audience but he’s also not an elected individual, in any country, and arguably no government or global coalition should be too much in thrall.
Recent advances in AI have been hailed as revolutionary but also dangerous – even a possible threat to humanity itself. It could lead to mass job losses and supercharge disinformation.
On Monday US President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would require AI developers to share safety results with the US government.
However, Mr Musk may argue for the US and other countries to go further.
In March he signed an open letter calling for a pause to “Giant AI Experiments”.
In an interview with the BBC in April Mr Musk said he had been worrying about AI safety for over a decade.
“I think there should be a regulatory body established for overseeing AI to make sure that it does not present a danger to the public,” he said.
Mr Musk has also pitted himself against AI companies due to the data they use to train chatbots – the software that learns how humans interact by scraping masses of data from various sources to fuel its knowledge and interaction styles.
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