What if Elon Musk is right about AI?

Elon Musk has never shied from breaking the rules of tech and business, embracing a will-he-or-won’t-he ethos that has kept fans, investors, [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( Elon Musk has never shied from breaking the rules of tech and business, embracing a will-he-or-won’t-he ethos that has kept fans, investors, critics and markets captivated, if not frustrated. Musk’s purchase of Twitter Inc. (which he threatened to back out of at least once before being sued, then finally buying the social media platform) and the company’s subsequent performance has only added to his reputation of being the trickster god of tech — a fact that [Twitter’s landlords]( haven’t taken kindly to. “When it comes to paying rent, [it’s difficult to work out Musk’s endgame](,” Stephen L. Carter writes. But when even the CEO of Telsa has reservations about something — in this instance, artificial intelligence — everyone starts listening. The billionaire joined a chorus of worried industry leaders calling for a [pause on AI development](, fearing “profound risks to society and humanity.” Is Musk right? If so … does it matter? [It might already be too late](, especially in the case of ChatGPT, warns Parmy Olson. Just look at [this tweet]( Musk sent on Friday afternoon, where he claimed to “borrow” a friend’s jacket. Looks awfully [familiar](, doesn’t it? If the toothpaste is already out of the tube, as Parmy says, it’s time to turn our focus to making AI work for humanity. - [The Deepfake Revolution May Bring a Media Revival](: “Some people will claim to be able to tell immediately if a digital object — a picture, a text, an audio or video file — has been created by generative AI, and they already do. I wouldn’t, however, lend much credence to such claims, based as they may be on expertise rooted in past experience. These are revolutionary times, and the quality leap of AI services such as ChatGPT and Midjourney has been so enormous that it would be nearsighted not to expect fully realistic output in the foreseeable future.” — Leonid Bershidsky - [Online Fakery and Digital Bank Runs Are a Scary Mix](: “If speed is a danger, misinformation is a potentially deadly toxin. Fake images and videos are becoming ever more difficult to distinguish from reality.” — Paul J. Davies and Parmy Olson - [AI Is About to Transform Childhood. Are We Ready?]( “The biggest drawback might simply be that the AI services work too well, and kids become very attached to them, neglecting friends and family. They might be such good babysitters that parents won’t always pull the plug when they should. They might, in short, be the 21st-century version of television. What will it be like to grow up with such companions? Nobody really knows. But an entire generation is about to find out.” — Tyler Cowen Bonus reading: [How AI Will Make Land More Valuable]( - [Your Humanity Could Save Your Writing Job from ChatGPT-4](: “At bottom, ChatGPT is no more than a vast recycling machine. It can search our collective digital brain for pre-cooked ideas and pre-assembled facts and then churn them out as columns. It can imitate whatever style you tell it to imitate. But it can’t provide the human element — vivid observations or fresh ideas or leaps of imagination. The best way for columnists to survive in the world of artificial intelligence is to write more human columns. This general rule — avoid destruction by upping the human element in what you do — applies to most other knowledge-intensive jobs.” — Adrian Wooldridge Notes: To contact the author of this newsletter, email bsample1@bloomberg.net. This is the Theme of the Week edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a digest of our top commentary published every Sunday. Follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022