ALERT: Elon Musk Issues Election Warning
For most of us, our experience with actually using artificial intelligence (AI) has only come about in the last few months, and it’s pretty innocuous. But behind the scenes in the tech world, AI has been developing for years and years. And not just to make strange art on a phone.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared on Fox News and told Tucker Carlson that there is a real potential for actual AI to manipulate the outcome of our elections. Think that sounds like the plot of a science fiction movie? Not anymore.
Twitter CEO and tech billionaire Elon Musk told Tucker Carlson that AI will likely have a “significant influence” on future elections, and called on the U.S. government to establish some level of oversight to sensibly regulate the rapidly emerging technology.
That should be more than a little alarming, considering we’re about to see our 2024 presidential election cycle kick into gear.
Well, that’s why I raised the concern of AI being a significant influence in elections. Even if you say that AI doesn’t have agency, well, it’s very likely that people will use the AI as a tool in elections. And then, you know, if AI’s smart enough, are they using the tool, or is the tool using them?
So I think things are getting weird, and they’re getting weird . . . fast.
“Weird” barely begins to describe the possibility. It’s disturbing enough to imagine subversive hackers trying to manipulate our elections with AI. But bad actors on either side of the political aisle are only one concern and maybe not the most dangerous threat.
According to Musk, if something isn’t done now, AI could actually develop the ability to resist the commands of its programmers. That means it wouldn’t allow us to shut it down. It could stop obeying software commands and continue to evolve and therefore act on its own.
Now I’m not ready to start ranting and raving about some Terminator-style nightmare scenario where the machines are in charge. But let’s be honest: The actual possibilities are scary – even in an election scenario. The manipulation of information could completely alter the outcomes, and how would we even know what’s real and what’s not? AI has no moral compass. It has no compunction against lying to you, if that’s how it was programmed. Or it could determine your words to be hate speech, based on whatever definition it was taught.
Ideally, the very purpose of developing new technologies is to serve and assist humanity in creating a better standard of living. Not to deceive and manipulate us.
And Musk wasn’t just saying that AI could affect our elections years down the road. He’s saying the effects could be present in the 2024 election cycle. The potential for misinformation and disinformation is alarming. We really do need to see some form of action, even including regulation, to create fail-safes to stop these scenarios before they start.
Today’s full Sekulow broadcast includes more discussion of Elon Musk’s cautionary interview with Fox News and how AI really might affect the outcome of our next election.
Watch the full broadcast below: