‘You’re freaking me out’: Creepy Elon Musk warning no one listened to

An old interview with Elon Musk has resurfaced, revealing a major “potential of civilisational destruction” has been ignored for years.

Elon Musk has given a nod to five-year-old menacing footage regarding his concerns about AI.

The tech Billionaire behind Space X, Tesla, and more recently, Twitter is now well-documented as being AI-hesitant as the technology rapidly ramps up in both sophistication and broader public use – through the use of programs like ChatGPT.

Just weeks ago, Musk, among others including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, co-signed a letter by the Future of Life Institute, which demanded a six-month pause in AI research.

But Musk’s concerns regarding AI have been ignored for years.

In a resurfaced clip from a 2018 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, made infamous when Musk puffed on a joint, he was asked why he had taken on a “fatalistic” attitude against AI.

Musk stared blankly during a lengthy pause.

“I try to convince people to slow down AI – to regulate the AI,” he revealed, appearing deflated.

“This was futile – I tried for years, nobody listened.”

In a resurfaced clip from a 2018 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Elon Musk was asked about AI. Picture: The Joe Rogan Experience podcast

He said his dire concerns had been ignored. Picture: The Joe Rogan Experience podcast

Joe Rogan interjected, presumably perturbed by the usually-charismatic billionaire’s defeated body language and said: “This seems like a scene from a movie.”

… where the robots are going to f***ing take over – you’re freaking me out,” he laughed.

“Nobody listened? No one?”

Musk reaffirmed: “Nobody listened”.

Rogan then asked if people were more inclined to listen as the technology’s capabilities became more apparent.

“Maybe they will. So far they haven’t,” Musk responded.

Musk responded to a Twitter user who posted the five-year-old clip with “yeah”.

But in recent days, it appears Musk has adopted an ‘if you can beat em’, join em’ approach – albeit with heavy human safety overtones.

Musk has consistently asserted that AI has catastrophic potential. Photographer: Marlena Sloss

Musk recently told Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson he plans to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that he calls “TruthGPT”.

It’s speculated to be a challenge to Open AI’s ChatGPT which is estimated to have 100 million users worldwide – 13 million of those daily users.

“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,” he said, in a potential nod to Trump’s Truth social media platform.

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

Reuters reported Musk has already been luring AI researchers from Google to the project.

He went on to tell Carlson: “AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production”.

“It has the potential of civilisational destruction,” he said.

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

On Monday, Musk claimed he had met with Barack Obama when he was president to discuss AI regulation.

“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,” he said.

However, not all agree.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates did not sign the letter to pause AI research. Picture: Matthew Stockman

Regarding the letter pushing for a pause on AI research, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told The Wall Street Journal he did not sign the letter and that the company has always taken safety and industry standards seriously.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also didn’t sign, telling Reuters the proposed pause won’t “solve the challenges” ahead.

Musk and several Silicon Valley heavyweights co-founded OpenAI in 2015, and he was one of its original co-chairs, serving on its board until 2018 before stepping down and offloading his stake in the venture to Microsoft that same year.