Most recently, Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter, among others, was in the spotlight after launching a letter to halt the development of artificial intelligence (AI) due to public concerns. However, despite these efforts, the tech giant appears to be pushing ahead with its own plans to develop an AI infrastructure.
Progress with AI project is being made
According to a report from Business Insider, Elon Musk seems to be making progress with his plans for an AI project on Twitter. Two anonymous sources familiar with the company said Twitter’s CEO recently purchased nearly 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) for use on the platform.
Due to the massive computing power required by the technology, GPUs are typically used for large-scale AI models. This news follows a tweet from Musk on March 18 announcing that the company would use AI to “detect and flag manipulation of public opinion” on Twitter. Musk confirmed via the Twitter message below that they are working on AI.
AI project is still in early stage
It is noteworthy that the relevant AI project is still in its early stages. However, the purchase of so many graphics cards makes it seem that Musk is committed to the project, given the large investment required. One of the sources has indicated that the AI project works with a large language model. However, the sources also said that the final role of AI at Twitter is still unclear at this point.
In addition, Twitter has recently attracted new talent with an extensive background in AI. In March, engineers Igor Babuschkin and Manuel Kroiss joined Musk’s team after working at DeepMind, an AI research arm of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
These developments came just weeks after Musk, along with thousands of other researchers in the tech sector, signed an open letter to temporarily halt AI development due to the risks to humanity.
Musk has also emphasized that in 2017 at an event with the National Governors Association of the United States, he issued a warning to regulators that AI research should be regulated “before it is too late.”