Elon Musk has laid out his plans for an artificial-intelligence company, seeking to rival Microsoft and Google-parent
Alphabet.
Shareholders of Tesla might not like his direction of thinking.
“I’m going to start something which I call ‘Truth GPT’ or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe,” Mr. Musk said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight late on Monday.
Musk was recently reported to be starting his own AI-focused company by the Financial Times. The billionaire was named as a director in a business-incorporation document filed in March for a new company called X.ai Corp.
The move comes despite Musk recently signing an open letter calling for a pause in training more powerful systems, alongside various AI researchers. Musk co-founded OpenAI but left the company in 2018.
There are reasons for investors in Tesla (ticker: TSLA) to be concerned.
The first is distraction. Musk already has plenty on his plate as CEO of three companies: Tesla, rocket company SpaceX, and social-media network Twitter. Adding responsibility for an AI company in a quest to potentially save humanity from “civilization destruction,” as he put it in the Fox interview, isn’t likely to help his focus on pushing toward goals at Tesla like fully self-driving vehicles and a more affordable electric car.
Secondly, Musk’s positioning of his AI venture sounds like he’s gearing up for a political fight.
Musk said he was concerned that ChatGPT—the chatbot launched by OpenAI and backed by
Microsoft
(MSFT)—has been trained to be “politically correct.” That suggests Musk intends to dive further into the controversial politics which have marked his tenure as owner of Twitter. He will need to be careful not to potentially alienate part of the customer base for Tesla’s electric vehicles.
Finally, it’s another potential strain on Musk’s personal financial resources that could lead him to consider selling more Tesla stock.
Exactly how much of a strain is hard to predict. Microsoft reportedly agreed to invest $10 billion in OpenAI. Musk wouldn’t necessarily look to be seeking to match that, and was reported by the Financial Times to be reaching out to Tesla and SpaceX investors for external backing. Still, if Musk truly believes that shaping the path of AI development is critical for humanity’s future then he could be ready to put a large part of his personal wealth at stake and that’s mostly tied up in Tesla shares.
Tesla stock is up 0.3% in early trading on Tuesday, and is up 52% so far this year. However, shares remain down 45% over the last 12 months.
The first part of Musk’s interview aired Monday, with a second part scheduled to air on Fox News on Tuesday night. Fox Corp. shares common ownership with News Corp. (NWSA), the parent of Dow Jones, which publishes Barron’s.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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