Elon Musk reveals mass US spying on Twitter private messages

Elon Musk has revealed explosive details on how Twitter users’ accounts have been accessed by US intelligence agencies. See what it entailed.

(AFP)

Twitter CEO Elon Musk claimed that US intelligence agencies were given “full access” to the social media platform, including the direct messages of its user database.

In an interview with Fox News airing Tuesday morning AEST, Musk told host Tucker Carlson of his shock after taking control of the company following his $44 billion in October 2022.

“The degree to which various government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind. I was not aware of that,” Musk said in a preview clip of the interview.

“Would that include people’s DMs?” Carlson asked.

“Ah, yes,” Musk responded in the short clip.

Tonight pic.twitter.com/20Fx4UhQg1

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 17, 2023

Speaking about the upcoming interview, Carlson told Fox & Friends that included every government official and head of state on the platform.

“All of their private messages were being read by not just by the US intel agencies, but by a bunch of different governments,” Carlson said.

“That’s like an unbelievable fact, the whole thing was a honey trap in order to surveil people and then to propagate propaganda. That’s insane.”

The billionaire tech mogul revealed he’s starting his own version of an artificial intelligence chatbot coined “TruthGPT” to combat the political bias of the breakout AI, ChatGPT, which Musk told Carlson was being trained by left-wing programmers to lie.

“I’m going to start something which I call TruthGPT, or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe,” Musk told Carlson.

“And I think this might be the best path to safety in the sense that an AI that cares about understanding the universe is unlikely to annihilate humans because we are an interesting part of the universe.”

Elon Musk said the US government had ‘full access’ to Twitter’s private direct messages. Picture: AFP

“AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production in the sense that it has the potential, however, small one may regard that probability, but it is not trivial; it has the potential of civilisational destruction,” Musk said.

After news broke over the weekend that Musk had created a new artificial intelligence company, X.AI Corp, he revealed he previously used his only meeting with then-president Barack Obama years ago to warn about the dangers of artificial intelligence.

“I saw it happening from well before GPT-1, which is why I tried to warn the public for years,” he tweeted.

“The only one-on-one meeting I ever had with Obama as President I used not to promote Tesla or SpaceX, but to encourage AI regulation.”

I saw it happening from well before GPT-1, which is why I tried to warn the public for years.

The only one on one meeting I ever had with Obama as President I used not to promote Tesla or SpaceX, but to encourage AI regulation.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2023

ELON MUSK’S NEW ARMS RACE

Elon Musk is reportedly developing a new artificial intelligence start-up in a new tech arms race against ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.

Quoting people with “direct knowledge” of the tech entrepreneur’s plans, the Financial Times first reported that Musk is assembling a team of researchers and engineers to join the rapidly-developing race to achieve generative AI systems.

“A bunch of people are investing in it … it’s real and they are excited about it,” the person said.

Musk, who has been outspoken about the dangers of artificial intelligence since the launch of ChatGPT, has reportedly secured thousands of high-powered silicon from Nvidia to begin development of his own system, the Times reported.

A new challenger in the AI arms race has entered the arena. Picture: AFP

The GPUs (graphics processing units) form the core of the high-end chip set needed to power the large language models behind the AI running programs like ChatGPT.

News of the advanced state of development comes just weeks after Musk signed an open letter, alongside the biggest names in tech, urging a six-month pause in the training of super-powerful AI systems due to the “profound risks to society and humanity”.

The letter, which came two weeks after the launch of OpenAI’s GPT-4, warned humanity was sleepwalking into catastrophe.

“Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources,” the letter said.

“Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict, or reliably control.”

Elon Musk has warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Picture: AFP

Musk’s entry into the arms race marks a major escalation in AI development as one of the world’s richest men bares down on the industry with his massive war chest and record of his successes with SpaceX and Tesla.

Musk will also bring the same free-speech views that he brought to Twitter to a new AI system. Mush has been critical of Open AI’s human censorship of machine learning, and the entry of an unrestricted AI system into the market has the potential of further shaping global discourse.

While a separate company from Twitter, people familiar with Musk’s thinking told the Times that the social media platform’s content and data could be used to train the language model. Tesla, meanwhile, could be leaned on for its computing resources.

In a statement to News Corp Australia, a company spokesperson responded with a poop emoji. Musk, however, has previously indicated his concern about the political bias of the ChatGPT.

“A maximally curious AI is probably best,” he said on Twitter. “The cat lobby will oppose this, naturally, but it will receive strong support from monkeys name George.”

A maximally curious AI is probably best.

The cat lobby will oppose this, naturally, but it will receive strong support from monkeys name George.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2023

After Musk started making moves earlier this year, his new AI start-up is recruiting engineers from top AI organisations like DeepMind, according to the Times. That reportedly includes Igor Babuschkin, a former DeepMind employee, and roughly half a dozen more engineers.

Musk founded the then-non-profit Open-AI in 2015 but, after clashing with management, left the board years later.