Elon Musk, Chuck Schumer Discuss AI, Electric Cars — Tesla CEO Says, 'We Talked About The Future'

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk discussed electric vehicles and artificial intelligence with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday.

What Happened: "We talked about the future," said Musk, after he exited the meeting with the top Democrat. He said, " We talked about AI and the economy."

Schumer said, "We talked about Buffalo (New York) — Tesla has a large plant in Buffalo. And we talked about AI," reported Reuters.

Brian Krassenstein, an independent journalist, shared a video on Twitter of Musk talking to reporters after the meeting.

BREAKING: Approximately an hour ago, Elon Musk met with Democratic Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, to discuss artificial intelligence and the US economy.

I cannot stress how important it is for Democrats and Republicans to work together in unison, along with private… pic.twitter.com/OjvGPQy4LF

— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) April 26, 2023

Musk commented on his meeting with Schumer later. He said he also met “many members of Congress about artificial intelligence regulation.”

“That which affects safety of the public has, over time, become regulated to ensure that companies do not cut corners,” said Musk.

“AI has great power to do good and evil. Better the former.”

Met with @SenSchumer and many members of Congress about artificial intelligence regulation today.

That which affects safety of the public has, over time, become regulated to ensure that companies do not cut corners.

AI has great power to do good and evil. Better the former.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2023

See Also: How To Invest In Artificial Intelligence

Why It Matters: Schumer began efforts to regulate artificial intelligence to address national security and education concerns as the popularity of systems such as ChatGPT increases, noted Reuters.

Earlier in the month, Musk said a pause was needed in the development of advanced AI. He signed a letter along with other notable people, which asked all AI labs to "immediately pause for at least six months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4."

Despite being worried about the threat posed to humanity by AI, Musk has said he will launch a "maximum truth-seeking AI" platform called "TruthGPT."

In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Musk proposed a solution to tackle rogue AI by cutting "power or connectivity."

Notably, Musk was an early backer of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, but he resigned from the board in 2018 saying there was a conflict of interest with his work at Tesla.

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