Say what you want about X, but it's still the best place to watch powerful people criticize each other on social media. Elon Musk got into an unsuspecting discussion on Twitter this holiday weekend with none other than Yann LeCun, Meta's chief AI scientist, who used the platform against the billionaire who owns it.
“(Musk) claims to want the 'most rigorous search for the truth' but spews crazy conspiracy theories on his own social platform,” LeCun said in a tweet Monday, responding to a job posting for a position at xAI. He listed various other claims by Elon Musk, including that AI would kill everyone and the billionaire's belief that xAI's work would be solved next year.
“I love his cars, his rockets, his solar panels and his satellite network,” LeCun said in a statement. follow-up tweet. “I don’t like his vengeful politics, conspiracy theories and media hype at all.”
LeCun clarified in another story that he was a scientist and not a businessman or product specialist. Musk chimed in to say that LeCun was “just following orders,” to which LeCun responded, “You don't seem to understand how search works.” » Musk replied asking what “science” LeCun had been doing recently, to which Meta's chief AI scientist posted a link to his Google Scholar page with “more than 80 technical articles published since January 2022”. The owner of follow up saying it was “nothing” and that LeCun was “getting soft”.
The entire exchange, which LeCun later remarked as “holiday pleasure“, seemed slightly more hostile than either suggested. This followed a series of attacks by Musk against Meta's products and services. WhatsApp is the latest victim of Musk's tweet storm. He posted Friday that the encrypted messaging app “exports your user data every night.» The head of WhatsApp responded directly to Musk, saying: “It's not correct» and that the company takes security seriously.
Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue said he would choose LeCun over Musk.every day of the week.Delangue noted that LeCun has made significant contributions to the AI community without cashing in like others have. Notably, Musk's A round of funding of 6 billion dollars from a large number of Silicon Valley venture capital firms and investors.
The exchange also revealed a disagreement between Musk and LeCun's views on artificial intelligence. While Musk often preaches to AI condemners, those who believe the technology could be existential to humanity, LeCun offers a much less frightening view of the risks of AI. LeCun calls these “convicts” illusory and recently said in a tweet that “it’s too early to worry about (AI). And it is far too early to regulate it to prevent “existential risks”.