Elon Musk invested early in DeepMind just to keep tabs on the progress of AI

Elon Musk is a well-known harbinger of the potential for ill held by artificial intelligence. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also helped start OpenAI, a group with a broad mandate that focuses on developing AI out (as the name implies) in the open, rather than behind closed doors as the exclusive province of high-powered governments and secretive private contractors. Musk, it turns out, was in on the AI train early with an investment in DeepMind, which was later acquired by Google. Musk wasn't in DeepMind for a return, as is the case with most investments; he wanted access to greater insight regarding DeepMind's progress, and the progress of AI in general, according to a new feature in Vanity Fair. The enterprising CEO wanted to be able to see how fast AI was improving, and what he found was a rate of gains that he hadn't expected, and that he thought most people would not possibly expect. This was the insight that Musk needed to begin a campaign warning against the potential dangers of AI, and to develop his own efforts to responsibility develop the tech via OpenAI.