The current AI arms race can be attributed to a disagreement between Elon Musk and Larry Page, according to Musk himself. Musk revealed in a two-part interview with Tucker Carlson that he and Page used to be close friends and would discuss AI safety late into the night during Musk's stays at Page's home in Palo Alto. Musk claimed that he perceived Page as not taking AI safety seriously enough and being too eager to achieve "digital superintelligence," which Musk likened to a "digital God." As a result of this disagreement, Musk attempted to distance OpenAI from Google and its approach to AI, which he believes has the potential for both good and bad outcomes.
Elon Musk stated that his disagreement with Larry Page was centered on their differing opinions about the best way to safeguard humanity and prevent it from being taken over by super-intelligent AI. Musk revealed that Page called him a "specist" during their conversation. This term implies valuing one life form, such as humans, over others, like animals or potentially super-intelligent AI. Musk acknowledged the accusation but felt it was the last straw in their disagreement.
Around 2014, Google acquired DeepMind and "about three-quarters of all the AI talent in the world," along with a vast amount of money and computing power, as per Musk. His conflict with Page became the driving force behind creating a competitor to Google.
Musk sought to create an organization that was fully open and transparent, which he believed was the opposite of Google's for-profit and closed approach. Musk told Tucker Carlson in the same interview that the "open" in OpenAI signifies open-source technology and transparency, ensuring people know what is happening within the organization.
Elon Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015, but he left its board three years later and has since become a vocal opponent of the company. In the same interview, Musk mentioned that he is working on creating a new AI called TruthGPT, which he claims will be "a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe."
Insider reached out to both Musk and Google for comment, but representatives for both parties have not responded at the time of writing.