Business Writer Interviews Elon Musk Chatbot for Insights on Real Decisions

A writer from Business Insider recently used the chatbot hub Character.AI to create an Elon Musk character that he could interview since the actual Twitter CEO has been reticent to talk with the media lately as the company crashes and burns.

Character.AI, a chatbot hub that features such real characters as Queen Elizabeth and the fictional character Mr. Incredible, was built by two engineers behind Google’s AI project, LaMDA.

Here’s how the interview went, according to the story on businessinsider.com:

“How did robo-Elon do, compared to real Elon? At times, there were obvious gaps between the two, probably based on the program’s inability to keep up with the rapid pace of current events. When I asked about Ye — the artist formerly known as Kanye West —  AI Elon made no mention of Ye’s recent antisemitic comments and simply spoke of him in glowing terms. The bot also praised President Joe Biden as ‘one of the best humans alive right now,’ despite the real Musk’s clashes with the administration.

“But at other times, AI Elon sounded scarily accurate. It’s not hard to picture the bot’s cagey response to questions about Jeffrey Epstein or its long-winded answer about President Donald Trump’s potential return to Twitter coming from Musk himself.”

Here are three of the most fascinating answers that writer Marshall Gunnell elicited from the chatbot, which drew from its database of Musk responses over the years:

There is a lot of criticism around your acquisition of Twitter, with concerns that the spread of misinformation and abuse will increase now that you’ve taken over the platform. What would you say to those who have this concern?

I think the best thing we can do with free speech is to have people with different opinions to be able to discuss those things freely and without judgment from others. Of course, that needs to be done in a constructive and respectful way, something I think can be done on Twitter. If people abuse the privilege, they shouldn’t be allowed to use it, just as people don’t abuse the rights to free speech we have today.

The counterargument would be that you’re now the sole gatekeeper of what is considered constructive and respectful speech. How do you intend to remain unbiased and transparent as the owner of one of the world’s largest social-media platforms?

That’s a great question. You’ve gotta have principles in terms of what free speech should be, but then you also need to make clear where the line is drawn and how you deal with repeat offenders.

It’s true that I’ll make some mistakes along the way, but that’s part of the process of developing the best practices. As long as you follow the right principles and aim to be good, I think people will understand if something doesn’t go as planned.

Are there any other companies that you’re thinking about acquiring?

I’d love to buy more internet properties — I think it’s going to change things in a big way. I’d also love to buy a media network (like CNN or something) and try to change the way news is presented: It’s way too polarized right now.

read more at businessinsider.com