Elon Musk's "Digital God" Statement

Billionaire Musk claimed that OpenAI provided inaccurate information about its training methods.

Elon Musk, during an extensive interview with CNBC reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin, shared some claims about the future of artificial intelligence. In the comprehensive interview, Musk discussed copyright infringement allegations and lawsuits against some competitors in the AI industry.

Sorkin asked, "So, do you think this is a lie?" and added, "Those at OpenAI do not say they are training with copyrighted data."

Musk responded, "Yes, that's a lie."

The question from Sorkin remains unclear as OpenAI has claimed in court that it trained models on copyrighted materials. However, the company's stance is that such training falls under "fair use" according to U.S. laws.

Musk claimed that copyright lawsuits would become meaningless, stating, "I don't know, I just want to say we will have a digital god when these lawsuits are settled. You can ask questions to the digital god at that point. These lawsuits won't be resolved within a certain timeframe."

Assuming Musk is referring to a digital god that will emerge if a class-action lawsuit concludes in the next three to five years, it indicates Musk believes such an entity would not only be imminent but also possess powers far beyond human control.

Previously, Musk claimed that Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, wanted to create a "digital god." Musk later suggested that a digital god could be represented as a .CSV file.

Our digital god will be in the form of a csv file

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2023

It appears that Musk is generally referring to the concept of superintelligence known as artificial general intelligence (AGI). While there isn't an accepted standard definition of AGI, the idea that an organization capable of invalidating the U.S. legal system within three to five years would possess sufficient qualifications for an AGI structure makes sense. Undoubtedly, such an entity would be far beyond human control.

Musk has previously predicted that AGI would emerge before 2030. However, industry experts have argued that this prediction is overly optimistic.