Elon Musk’s AI Long Con
The point at which fantasy becomes reality.
By Ben Virdee-Chapman July 28, 2017__
Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg are currently — very publicly — disagreeing with each other over the future of artificial intelligence.
In short; Musk believes AI will lead to The Apocalypse™ and Zuckerberg lacks understanding, while Zuckerberg is more chill about our AI future and thinks Elon is fearmongering.
Ah, tech billionaires 😉
But the moment you look into how Musk approaches his personal brand — what you discover is absolutely fascinating. He has a vision of creating a completely new kind of society, one that is dramatically different from what we understand today.
And it got me thinking — perhaps Musk’s views on AI aren’t anything more than a clever primer.
Let me explain.
Name the enemy
Strategist Andy Raskin, in his 2016 article ‘Want a Better Pitch? Watch This’, used Musk’s keynote for Tesla Powerwall as an example of how to sell a radical idea to the world.Raskin writes:
“Never start a pitch by talking about yourself, your team, your product, or your total addressable market. Instead, start by naming the thing that’s getting in the way of your customer’s happiness. Do that by painting an emotionally resonant picture of how your customer is struggling, who/what is to blame, and why. When Musk shows this image of burning fossil fuels, you can practically hear Darth Vader’s ominous breath.”
Back to today — he’s running the ‘villain’ playbook again.
Only this time it’s not fossil fuel, it’s a future with malevolent AI.
Why now
Ian Bogost, writing for The Atlantic, suggests Musk [and Zuck] are simply keeping themselves relevant.“Musk and Zuckerberg aren’t engaged in a debate about ideas. They are peacocking their personal identities in order to serve their future interests.”
Bogost — referencing statistician Mark Palko’s theorem — goes on to explain Musk’s interest in fostering his alter ego as a kind of real life Tony Stark.
“Portraying AI as an existential threat to humanity is consistent with this interest. If intelligent machines might strip humanity of its unmatched leverage over the natural and artificial environment, then industrial solutions must be pursued in order to stop them. Even if the threat of a robot apocalypse is unlikely, Musk has reason to advocate for aggressive contingency plans.”
Musk leverages his public persona to conduct a steady stream of highly-persuasive rhetoric. And, we all lap it up.
Compound this with his announcement of Neurolink, which promises to ‘connect human brains to computers’, and we can start to piece together his bigger plan.
Nick Statt, writing in The Verge:
“[Neurolink], which is still in the earliest stages of existence and has no public presence whatsoever, is centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. These enhancements could improve memory or allow for more direct interfacing with computing devices.”
In Musk’s version of the future, we can only protect mankind from ‘The Robots’ by controlling them. Telepathically.
It’s intoxicating stuff.
Peak-Gonzo
I’ve always been struck at how Musk puts himself at the center of stories; none more so than this ‘spat’ with Zuckerberg. In that sense, Musk is sort of becoming tech’s Hunter S. Thompson.He’s gone full Gonzo.
Leaning on this rivalry he is creating a split in reality, and cementing ‘The Enemy’ in our minds. Zuckerberg is shaping up to be the perfect accelerant for the story.
With rumors of a 2020 presidential run, Zuckerberg has an enduring news worthiness. Musk will no-doubt look to leverage this to his advantage, further driving a wedge between the (often misinformed) pros and cons of AI.
Thompson infamously utilized Nixon’s 72' campaign to immortalize his credentials as a political polemicist. Musk now too has his ‘Nixon’.
Poor ol’ Zuck.
“Fiction is based on reality unless you’re a fairytale artist.” — Hunter S. Thompson.
Republished May 11, 2023.