Elon Musk reportedly assembles team to develop ChatGPT alternative

Category: AI Americas Elon Musk reportedly assembles team to develop ChatGPT alternative

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reportedly engaged AI experts amid concerns about the neutrality of OpenAI’s text-based artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT. The tech billionaire appears to be actively working on developing an alternative for the well-known chatbot.

Musk has apparently recruited Igor Babushkin, a researcher who recently left his role in Alphabet’s DeepMind AI unit. Igor specializes in machine-learning models used by language models like ChatGPT, according to a report by The Information published Feb. 27.

The report specifically referred to the media outlet’s communication with two unnamed persons, who are said to have direct knowledge of Musk’s team efforts. Another third party was also briefed on conversations between Elon and Babushkin regarding the matter.

Musk’s criticises ChatGPT

As the story goes, Musk criticised OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015, for putting protections in place that prevent the AI from producing content that might offend particular groups. The general concern is that this amounts to censorship through the backdoor. Musk has since severed connections with the OpenAI team, and says that in 2022 the technology was an illustration of “training AI to be woke.”

More recently, Elon joked that “what we need is TruthGPT,” which led to the development of such a bot, supposedly using the underlying technology within the cryptocurrency space. The crypto project has asked for Musk’s assistance, though it remains to be seen if there’s any legitimacy to the initiative.

Utility for crypto adoption?

Despite criticism, Binance has praised ChatGPT over its potential to be used for crypto expansion and education. Its ability to explain complex concepts such as proof-of-work (PoW) and proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms in a conversational style could help bridge the information gap with lay people. Some users even asked the chatbot to explain Bitcoin like a 1920s mobster, resulting in hilarious quips.

The ability to assume various conversation styles may offer bitcoiners more possibilities to reach out to different audiences. Admittedly, concerns of political bias might continue to fuel criticisms levied against the truthfulness of AI chatbot systems.

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