In a conversation with reporters, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, called for a federal department of artificial intelligence (AI) after a Capitol Hill summit that was attended by high-profile tech executives, leaders, activists, and researchers.
Musk arrived at the Capitol in a black Tesla on Wednesday morning to share his thoughts and views with Congress and other tech executives, including Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, and Sundar Pichai, Google CEO. Musk has earlier said that unchecked AI offers a threatening risk to humanity and restated that view in his comments Wednesday.
After the summit, Musk told reporters that he consider this meeting could go down in history as essential to the future of civilization. AI development is potentially damaging to all humans everywhere, he added.
The billionaire voiced optimism about the forum, saying there appeared to be a “strong consensus.” Musk believed it’s likely the federal AI department could act similarly to the Federal Aviation Administration or the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, adding that those in the space had to be “proactive while reactive.”
In July, Musk established his own AI company, xAI. There has been short news from within the firm, but Musk has made repeated public statements that AI development must have strong guardrails.
