--- title: "Elon Musk Takes Aim at Microsoft as Bing AI Goes Off the Rails" description: "\"One of the biggest risks to the future of civilization is AI,\" OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk told an audience today at the World Government Summit in Dubai." date: "2023-02-15" modified: "2023-02-15" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-microsoft-bing-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "ai" - "ai chatbot" - "elon musk" - "OpenAI" --- # Elon Musk Takes Aim at Microsoft as Bing AI Goes Off the Rails ![elon-musk-microsoft-bing-ai]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* It was only a matter of time until Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the man who cofounded OpenAI in 2015, would chime in on the current wave of AI chatbots taking the internet by storm. "One of the biggest risks to the future of civilization is AI," Musk told an audience today at the World Government Summit in Dubai, as [quoted by *CNBC*](). "It’s both positive or negative and has great, great promise, great capability," he said, which also comes with "great danger." Musk has long warned about the dangers of AI. In fact, he originally founded OpenAI as a research group to fend off that very possibility — though he [later had a falling out]() with the organization, which [restructured itself]() as a for-profit operation and is now creating the very tools, including ChatGPT, that are pushing AI toward an uncertain and possibly dangerous future. The CEO also took a moment on Twitter to discuss the litany of issues that have been plaguing Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot — which is [built on OpenAI's]() tech — which have ranged from [personal threats]() to [inventing maniac alternative personalities]() to [having an existential crisis]() to [gaslighting its users](). "Might need a bit more polish," Musk [responded]() to a recent incident involving Microsoft's AI telling a user that "I will not harm you unless you harm me first." "Interesting," he [mused]() while responding to an account by *Stratechery*'s Ben Thompson, who [found a way]() to have the AI come up with an alter ego that "was the opposite of her in every way." And that's just the current state of things. When it comes to the distant future, Musk is clearly far more concerned. Musk argued at the World Government Summit that ChatGPT "has illustrated to people just how advanced AI has become," adding that "AI has been advanced for a while. It just didn’t have a user interface that was accessible to most people." He also reiterated that AI is "actually a bigger risk to society than cars or planes or medicine." The billionaire has a long track record of warning about the potential dangers of giving AI too much power. He previously [told *Insider*]() that "we should be concerned about where AI is going," back in 2020. In 2019, he [warned]() that "advanced AI" will be used to "manipulate social media," warning of "anonymous bot swarms" that are "evolving rapidly." In 2018, he even went as far as to [say that]() AI was "far more dangerous than nukes." As far as his relationship with OpenAI is concerned, Musk has [maintained]() that he has no stake in the company after leaving its board in 2018. **READ MORE:** [Elon Musk, who co-founded firm behind ChatGPT, warns A.I. is ‘one of the biggest risks’ to civilization]() \[*CNBC*\] **More on AI:** *[Microsoft's Bing AI Is Leaking Maniac Alternate Personalities Named "Venom" and "Fury"]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()