On July 23, local time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had an in-depth conversation with the famous psychologist Jordan B. Peterson at the Gigafactory in Texas, USA. This interview not only touched on the cutting-edge of science and technology, such as the latest research and development breakthroughs of Grock chatbot, Musk's xAI company, and profound issues in the field of AI security, but also extended to the discussion of the birth rate crisis at the social level.

In addition, towards the end of the interview, Musk also rarely disclosed a twists and turns in his personal life. He told how he was "deceived" into signing a document agreeing to his son Xavier Musk's gender reassignment.

core points

1.About Grok-2

Grok-2 has completed training, and the training used approximately 15,000 H100GPUs. Grok-2 is expected to be released next month and its performance will be comparable to ChatGPT-4.

2.About Grok-3

We expect to release Grok-3 in December. By then, Grok-3 will become the most powerful AI in the world.

3. About the future development of xAI

Compared with established companies that have been around for 5, 10 or 20 years, we still have a lot to do. Although we started late, we are catching up at an amazing speed. xAI is growing faster than any other company.

4. About the goals of xAI

xAI will follow OpenAI’s original goal, which is to ensure that the development of artificial intelligence benefits humanity, not just to maximize profits.

5. On support for Trump

The media reports that I donate $45 million a month to Trump are completely untrue. Now what I've done is I've created a political action committee, or super PAC, and it's called AmericanPac.

6. About my son’s gender reassignment

I was deceived and no one told me at the time that puberty blockers were actually sterilizing drugs.

7. On the fertility crisis

All countries that have reached a certain level of economic development have seen a significant downward trend in their birth rates, and have even fallen below the replacement level. If these trends continue, the populations of most countries will shrink significantly and may even disappear entirely.

8. About the Mars Project

We should use less than 1% of our economic output to support the exploration and construction of multi-planetary life. Although this may seem small, it is actually a natural extension of the expansion of the boundaries and scale of human consciousness.


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"The world's most powerful AI" Grok-3 is expected to be online by the end of the year

Musk is not only full of confidence in the future of xAI. He told Peterson: "Compared to those established companies that have been around for five, 10 or 20 years, we have a lot more to do.Although we started late, we are catching up at an amazing speed. xAI is growing faster than any other company. "

When asked to compare Grok with ChatGPT, Musk said frankly: "The Grok version currently released is still based on the training results of Grok-1. Although we have optimized and upgraded it and called it Grok-1.5, its basic model is still an order of magnitude behind ChatGPT in performance."

Peterson then asked about the competitiveness of next-generation AI chatbot models. Musk revealed that the second version of Grok has successfully completed training. Engineers are currently working on "checking for leaks and filling in gaps" and are expected to officially launch Grok 2 next month. Musk said: "The performance of Grok-2 will be at or at least very close to the level of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4. "

Musk further added: “At the same time, at the Memphis data center, we are working hard to train Grok-3. We expect to complete the training phase in the next three to four months, followed by meticulous fine-tuning and bug fixes.Our goal is to release Grok-3 in December, by which time it will become the most powerful AI in the world. "

xAI: Google’s counterweight

When discussing the safety of artificial intelligence, Musk revealed concerns about artificial intelligence safety that arose after a conversation with Google co-founder Larry Page.

Musk mentioned: "Larry calls me a 'human speciesist,' thinking that I am a human speciesist who supports humans rather than machines. And his view is that in the future, humans will upload their thoughts to computers, and eventually everyone will become some form of robot."

Peterson fully agreed with this, emphasizing: “This is actually the same as the end of humanity, because no matter what shape we were at that time, we are no longer what we are today.”

Musk said that these in-depth exchanges not only contributed to his co-founding OpenAI with Sam Altman (Sam Altman), but also inspired his determination to eventually independently develop Grok. “Not supporting humanity is simply outrageous.If humanity itself doesn’t stand on humanity’s side, then who will?? This was a wake-up call for me. At that time,I realized we needed some new AI companies to serve as a counterweight to Google. "

Musk also said that OpenAI had good intentions, but ended up becoming a profit-focused company. Musk explained that he was one of the company's main founders, but over time, he realized that the company wasn't following its original goals. Musk added,OpenAI started as a non-profit open source organization but has become a for-profit company, which goes against the original vision.

This is why Musk began to consider starting a new artificial intelligence company, xAI.xAI will follow the original goals of OpenAI, which is to ensure that the development of artificial intelligence benefits humanity, not just to maximize profits..


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Low fertility rate may trigger demographic crisis

Musk and Peterson also addressed the issue of low birth rates. Musk said that as early as more than 20 years ago, he had noticed a common phenomenon:All countries that have reached a certain level of economic development have seen a significant downward trend in their birth rates, even falling below the replacement level..

Musk noted that “if these trends continue, the population of most countries will be significantly reduced or even completely eliminated.”

Peterson said,Deciding to have a child is actually a vote of confidence in the future. This means that you not only focus on the present, but also are full of hopes and expectations for the future.


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Donating $45 million a month to Trump?

When asked about previous media reports that he donated huge sums of money to Trump, Musk clarified that media reports about his donations are completely untrue, "I won't donate $45 million a month to Trump".

However, Musk pointed out thatHe set up a super PAC called American Political Action Committee, to support Trump’s campaign.

Musk said the Austin-based American PAC is a "non-partisan" organization. He emphasized that he is not a member of the "MAGA" (Make America Great Again) movement, but his philosophy is similar to it, that is,"Make America Greater".

Musk also pointed out that "I do not believe in personality cults," but he believed that Trump showed "tremendous courage" after he suffered an assassination attempt recently.

Mars colonization plan:Expand human consciousness beyond the Earth

Peterson then turned the focus of the discussion to Musk’s grand plans for colonizing Mars. Musk elaborated that this is more than just a project.Musk is committed to expanding human consciousness beyond the earth, a key part of realizing a broader vision. He firmly believes that as humans, we should devote a small portion of our resources to the exploration and colonization of unknown planets.

Musk said: "I want to be clear, I don't think we should overinvest resources in outer space projects such as Mars. I think,We should use less than 1% of our economic output to support the exploration and construction of multi-planetary life.. Although this may seem small, it is actually a natural extension of the expansion of the boundaries and scale of human consciousness. "

Musk also emphasized that as an intelligent civilization, it is crucial to fully prepare for the future of future generations, and settling on Mars is a step in this long-term plan.

Musk makes rare announcement about son's transgender status

Towards the end of the interview, Musk rarely disclosed the fact that one of his sons had transgendered. He admitted that he had been "cheated" and supported his son's decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

He recounted his personal experience with his son's gender identity transition and explained how he was "tricked" into signing the relevant documents out of concern that his son might commit suicide against the chaotic backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, with formal approval from the court, 20-year-old Xavier Musk changed his name to Vivian Jenna Wilson and publicly identified as a woman. Musk admitted that he initially supported Xavier's use of puberty blockers as part of his journey to explore his gender identity.

Musk went on to say that the entire process of gender reassignment was performed on children "well below the legal age." "This is unbelievably evil" and anyone advocating this process should be jailed, he said.

"It's possible for adults to take advantage of children who are experiencing identity confusion and convince them that their gender is the wrong one," Musk said.

However, he revealed to Peterson: "I was lied to, no one told me at the time that puberty blockers were actually sterilization drugs. "

Musk also said the incident gave him a new understanding of what he called the "awakening virus," which he has since vowed to "destroy."


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