During yesterday's meeting in California between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk, which was broadcast live on X (formerly Twitter), the two men discussed the benefits and risks involved in the development of AI, and measures to prevent any damage AI might do, as well as Israel's judicial reform and antisemitism on X.
During the 50 minute conversation, conspicuous by its absence was any talk about Musk investing in Israel in the coming years, which was one of the reasons that Netanyahu claimed he was meeting with Musk.
The conversation quickly took on the format of each man interviewing the other. Netanyahu, after complimenting Musk for being a role model in the world of AI, asked him what he thinks are the global steps that should be taken to ensure that the great threats inherent in the technology do not occur. Musk replied that he had met with several leaders to discuss exactly this issue. The dangers, according to Musk, are even greater than the general public knows, but so are the benefits. Musk stressed that the future is a spectrum of possibilities, and channeling free will into positive choices will produce a great future aided by AI.
Last March, Musk, along with other key people in the global tech industry, signed an open letter calling for a halt to further development of AI without proper regulation and supervision, due to the many risks inherent in the technology. In the open letter, the demand was raised to freeze the continuation of the development for a period of at least six months. On the other hand, last July Musk announced the establishment of a new company called xAI. The company believes in developing AI and its goal, it says, is to "understand the true nature of the universe." It was also announced that the company's team will include former employees who specialized in the development of AI at tech giants, such as former employees of Google's DeepMind, Microsoft as well as employees from the University of Toronto.
During the conversation, Musk asked Netanyahu to comment on Israel's judicial reform. In his answer, which included a historical review of the concept of democracy from the days of ancient Greece to the present day, Netanyahu claimed that Israel's branches of government were not balanced and he was aiming to achieve a correction of this - a small correction to restore checks and balances.
Netanyahu also spoke about the criticism of the anti-Semitic dialogue on the X (Twitter) platform and the claim that there are bots spreading hate on the network. Musk responded that although X advocates freedom of expression, the paywall that was recently installed on the platform (which was not present before Twitter was acquired by Musk) prevents those bots from accessing the platform.
Nothing more than an entertaining PR dialogue
The conversation turned to such topics as favorite books and influential people, and eventually Musk even mentioned the song "Hava Nagila", which probably succeeds in optimally summarizing what happened at the event. With gentle condemnation of anti-Semitism on the part of Musk, Israeli advocacy on the part of Netanyahu and a lot of jocularity in between, there was no real thread in their conversation.
Last June, chatbot ChatGPT developer OpenAI (in which Musk was involved initially) CEO Sam Altman, and the poster boy of AI, visited Israel. He came to Israel after a European tour in which he met with a host of presidents and Prime Ministers. But no meeting was held in Israel with Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is not a popular figure in the international media or global politics, to say the least. Musk's public image is also undergoing a negative change, from the genius entrepreneur to a billionaire who does whatever he wants. It seems that more than the meeting having the ability to yield technological and economic results for the State of Israel in the global race to arm itself with generative AI, the audience was treated to a mutual public relations dialogue, albeit amusing at times.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 19, 2023.
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