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Elon Musk

CEO of Tesla, chief engineer of SpaceX, CTO of xAI, owner of X

5 records

Portrait source: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0

Records

If you say, people often talk about solving global poverty, or essentially, how do we give everyone a very high standard of living? I think the only way to do this is AI and robotics, which doesn't mean that it is without its issues. I mean, we need to be very careful with AI. We need to be very careful with robotics. We don't want to find ourselves in a James Cameron movie. You know, Terminator. He's great movies, I love his movies.

Exact quote, beginning

Elon Musk

CEO of Tesla, chief engineer of SpaceX, CTO of xAI, owner of X

In a 2026 World Economic Forum conversation in Davos, Elon Musk said AI and robotics are the only way to give everyone a very high standard of living, and that this does not mean it is without issues: we need to be very careful with AI and with robotics, and we do not want to end up in Terminator.

CEO of Tesla; Chief Engineer of SpaceX; CTO of xAI2026World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026, Conversation with Elon Musk

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Surrounding words

Tesla is obviously about sustainable technology and... And also, at this point, we've sort of added to our mission sustainable abundance. So with robotics and AI. This is really the path to abundance for all. If you say, people often talk about solving global poverty, or essentially, how do we give everyone a very high standard of living? I think the only way to do this is AI and robotics, which doesn't mean that it is without its issues. I mean, we need to be very careful with AI. We need to be very careful with robotics. We don't want to find ourselves in a James Cameron movie. You know, Terminator. He's great movies, I love his movies. But we don't want to be in Terminator, obviously. But if you have ubiquitous AI that is essentially free or close to it, and ubiquitous robotics, then you will have an explosion in the global economy, an expansion of the global economy that is truly beyond all precedent.

What this quote does not say

  • The surrounding conversation is optimistic in frame: Musk says he is 'very optimistic about the future', describes 'the benign scenario of the future' in which robots saturate demand, and closes by encouraging everyone to be optimistic, saying it is 'better to err on the side of being an optimist and wrong rather than a pessimist and right'.
  • In the same conversation he says AI may be smarter than any human by the end of the year and smarter than all of humanity collectively by 2030 or 2031, stated as a capability forecast with no risk claim attached, and he makes no call for oversight or regulation anywhere in it.

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Digital super intelligence is possibly a great filter. I hope it isn’t, but it might be.

Elon Musk

CEO of Tesla, chief engineer of SpaceX, CTO of xAI, owner of X

Asked whether AGI might be one reason civilizations fail to survive, Elon Musk said digital superintelligence could be such a “great filter,” although he hoped it would not.

Member of the Neuralink teamDate not establishedLex Fridman Podcast #438

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Surrounding words

So you are basically trying to knock out one great filter at a time. Elon Musk Digital super intelligence is possibly a great filter. I hope it isn’t, but it might be. Guys like say Jeff Hinton would say, he invented a number of the key principles in artificial intelligence. I think he puts the probability of AI annihilation around 10% to 20%, something like that.

What this quote does not say

  • Immediately afterward, Musk attributed a roughly 10% to 20% probability of AI annihilation to ‘Jeff Hinton,’ not to himself, then said it was 80% likely to be great and that AI risk mitigation was important.
  • Earlier in the interview, Musk described Neuralink as an idea that may help with AI safety but not a panacea or sure thing.

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Well, I mean I’ve been pushing for some kind of regulatory oversight for a long time. I’ve been somewhat of a Cassandra on the subject for over a decade. I think we want to be very careful in how we develop AI. It’s a great power and with great power comes great responsibility.

Exact quote, beginning

Elon Musk

CEO of Tesla, chief engineer of SpaceX, CTO of xAI, owner of X

In a November 2023 podcast interview, Elon Musk said it would be wise to have an objective third party act as a referee that can go in and understand what the leading AI players are doing and voice concerns publicly, even without enforcement power.

Owner of the X platform; founder of xAI; leader of Tesla and SpaceXPublished November 10, 2023 · date of remarks not establishedLex Fridman Podcast #400

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Surrounding words

How can you help ensure with xAI and Tesla AI work that it doesn’t become a competitive race to AGI, but that is a collaborative development of safe AGI? Elon Musk Well, I mean I’ve been pushing for some kind of regulatory oversight for a long time. I’ve been somewhat of a Cassandra on the subject for over a decade. I think we want to be very careful in how we develop AI. It’s a great power and with great power comes great responsibility. I think it would be wise for us to have at least an objective third party who can be like a referee that can go in and understand what the various leading players are doing with AI, and even if there’s no enforcement ability, they can at least voice concerns publicly. Jeff Hinton, for example, left Google and he voiced strong concerns, but now he’s not at Google anymore, so who’s going to voice the concerns? So I think there’s, Tesla gets a lot of regulatory oversight on the automotive front.

What this quote does not say

  • The proposal is described at a high level and does not specify jurisdiction, compulsory access, or enforcement powers.
  • The publisher warns that the transcript is human generated and may contain errors.

How this was checked

  • Quote matched character-for-character against the captured page.

Reviewed by

an AI reviewer that read the whole source · an automatic character-by-character check

Statements they signed

FROM THE SIGNED STATEMENT

These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.

Signed statement: “2017 Open Letter to the UN CCW” (Toby Walsh/FLI)

Elon Musk

CEO of Tesla, chief engineer of SpaceX, CTO of xAI, owner of X

Signed as part of a group statement. Not spoken.

Elon Musk was listed as a signatory of the “2017 Open Letter to the UN CCW,” which urged governments to prevent an arms race in lethal autonomous weapons and protect civilians from their misuse.

founder, CEO & CTO of SpaceX, co-founder & CEO of Tesla Motor, USA.Date not established2017 Open Letter to the UN CCW

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Surrounding words

Justin Lane, founder of Prospecture Simulation, USA. Gary Marcus, founder & CEO of Geometric Intelligence (acquired by Uber), USA. Brian Mingus, founder & CTO of Latently, USA. Mohammad Musa, founder & CEO at Deepen AI, USA. Elon Musk, founder, CEO & CTO of SpaceX, co-founder & CEO of Tesla Motor, USA. Rosanna Myers & Dan Corkum, founders, CEO & CTO of Carbon Robotics, USA. Erik Nieves, founder & CEO of PlusOne Robotics, USA.

How this was checked

  • The organiser's own roster lists this person as a signer.

Reviewed by

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FROM THE SIGNED STATEMENT

We recommend expanded research aimed at ensuring that increasingly capable AI systems are robust and beneficial: our AI systems must do what we want them to do.

Signed statement: “Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial AI” (FLI)

Elon Musk

CEO of Tesla, chief engineer of SpaceX, CTO of xAI, owner of X

Signed as part of a group statement. Not spoken.

Elon Musk signed “Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial AI,” an open letter calling for expanded research to ensure increasingly capable AI systems are robust, beneficial, and do what people want them to do.

SpaceX, Tesla MotorsDate not establishedResearch Priorities for Robust and Beneficial AI

SourceArchived
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Surrounding words

Harvard, Fellow at the Institute for Applied Computational Science Adrian Weller, Cambridge, AI researcher Jacob Steinhardt, Stanford, AI Ph.D. student Nick Hay, Berkeley, AI Ph.D. student Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype, CSER and FLI Elon Musk, SpaceX, Tesla Motors Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Luke Nosek, Founders Fund Aaron VanDevender, Founders Fund Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT, Professor at and director of MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Margaret Boden, U.

How this was checked

  • The organiser's own roster lists this person as a signer.

Reviewed by

an AI reviewer that read the whole source