Elon Musk says Bill Gates's understanding of AI is 'limited'

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk have never been the best of buddiesin fact theyve butted heads on some of the biggest issues facing humanity.

The tech tycoons have clashed on issues like the pandemic and climate change, but now the SpaceX founder has taken a swing at philanthropist Gatess open letter on artificial intelligence.

Gates published a seven-page essay on his website a week ago about why A.I. is so revolutionary, covering topics such as how the technology will transform healthcare and education, as well as highlighting some risks and pitfalls creators and the public need to be aware of.

It seems Muskwho recently held the title of richest person on Earth, once held by Gates was unimpressed. Responding to a tweet about Gatess 3,639-word long essay titled The age of A.I. has begun, Musk wrote: I remember the early meetings with Gates. His understanding of A.I. was limited. Still is.

In his essay, Gates mentions he had been speaking to ChatGPT creator OpenAI since 2016. Its unclear in which capacity Gates was speaking to Sam Altmans team, though at the time he was still a board member at Microsoftwhich is a partner of OpenAI.

Musks relationship with OpenAI began ever earlier, in 2015. He was one of the original backers of the business, perhaps explaining why he was in early meetings with Gates, but left the organization in 2018 citing possible conflicts of interest because of Teslas own A.I. work.

Since then, Musk has been critical of his the business he once backed, tweeting in 2020, I have no control & only very limited insight into OpenAI, adding his confidence in its safety was not high. He then paused OpenAIs access to the Twitter database for training, saying he needed to know more about the A.I. creators governance structure & revenue plans going forward. OpenAI was started as open-source & non-profit. Neither are still true.

Conflict of faith

Musks attack on Gates may also come from a conflict of faith in A.I. as a model. Despite outlining reservations about the technology, Gatess take has been described as bullish, courtesy of his thoughts such as: This new technology can help people everywhere improve their lives. At the same time, the world needs to establish the rules of the road so that any downsides of artificial intelligence are far outweighed by its benefits, and so that everyone can enjoy those benefits no matter where they live or how much money they have.

Meanwhile Musk, although a supporter of the technology, has issued far starker warnings of scary outcomes such as a Terminator-like apocalypse. He previously said the technology scares the hell out of him.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation did not immediately respond to Fortunes request for comment.

COVID conflicts

Musk may have taken inspiration from his subject when it comes to making jibes about intelligence. In July 2020, Gates said Musk should scale back his outrageous comments on the pandemic, which included saying children were immune to the virus and opposing lockdown. In an interview with CNBCs Sqawk Box, Gates said: Hes not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So hes allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesnt confuse areas hes not involved in too much.

Billy G is not my lover
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2020

Musk responded on Twitter at the time, posting Michael Jackson Billie Jean lyrics. In a later podcast interview with The New York Times Kara Swisher, he called Gates a knucklehead, adding: Gates said something about me not knowing what I was doing. Its like, Hey, knucklehead, we actually make the vaccine machines for CureVac, that company youre invested in.'

Climate wars

Gates has also made a habit of openly complimenting Musk. In 2020, he told technology YouTuber Marques Brownlee that Tesla had been the biggest driver towards electric vehicle adoption, but then revealed he had purchased a Porsche Taycan instead of one of Musks models.

Gates similarly showered praise on Musk in the New York Times Sway podcast in February 2021, saying underestimating Elon is not a good idea. He continued: Its important to say that what Elon did with Tesla is one of the greatest contributions to climate change anyones ever made, but countered that by saying Tesla had focused on the easy stuff like passenger cars. In the same interview he appeared to take aim at SpaceX, saying he doesnt think rockets are the solution to the climate crisis.

Gates also told French YouTuber HugoDécrypte he likes Musk, saying he has done great work but added: I give a lot more to climate change than Elon or anyone else. I give a lot of philanthropic dollars, I back companiesyou know electric cars are about 16% of emissions, so we also need to solve that other 84%.

The compliments have done little to change Musks opinions of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation founder. When asked what he thought of a previous Gates essay on electric trucks, Musk responded: He has no clue, adding his conversations with the man worth $107.5 billion have always been underwhelming.

Musk, reportedly worth $192 billion, has also previously made fun of Gatess appearance but last year said he was moving on from making fun of Gates.