Tesla CEO Elon Musk is teaming up with a group of artificial intelligence (AI) experts to launch a new non-profit research project named OpenAI. Its mission is to develop AI that will benefit all humanity, while not being limited by the need to turn a profit. The Silicon Valley investors have promised a long-term investment of $1 billion, which could include research on AI technology in self-driving cars, robots, computers, social media, and mobile devices.
OpenAI includes financial backing from University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University researchers. Its co-chairs will be Musk and Y Combinator President Sam Altman.
Contributors to OpenAI also include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Amazon Web Services. The startup will perform AI research but will not develop products.
Even though the tech executives have made a $1 billion commitment to OpenAI, the backers have admitted its results are "uncertain," according to RT. However the co-chairs believe its goal and structure are correct.
OpenAI's first blog post explained that today's AI systems are impressive but have limited abilities. Within time those limits will allow machines such as robots to perform tasks with human-level intellectual skills.
It noted that such AI could benefit humans. However, it could also harm them if the technology were produced or used wrongly.
The development of AI tech directly affects Musk due to it being built into Tesla's electric vehicles. However, he is also concerned about the technology's misuse.
Last year Musk teamed up with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, and AI researchers to pen a letter to world leaders. It warned about the dangers of autonomous weapons in a future arms race, according to PC World.