The push for Elon Musk to lead American AI policy is already starting

The push for Elon Musk to lead American AI policy is already starting

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Efforts to influence President-elect Donald Trump’s policies via Elon Musk are already beginning. On Friday, nonprofit AI advocacy group Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) launched a public petition asking Trump to make Musk his special adviser on AI, saying he is well positioned to protect the US lead on the technology while ensuring it’s rolled out safely.

“No one is better equipped to help the Trump Administration make America lead on AI than Elon Musk,” reads the petition circulated by ARI, which is led by former Democratic representative Brad Carson and says it doesn’t take corporate funding.

Musk has been a leading critic of OpenAI, a company he cofounded but more recently has distanced himself from and made into an opponent. Shortly after the release of ChatGPT, he signed onto a letter calling for a moratorium on the development of more advanced generative AI models in order to implement safeguards. Critics say his stances are largely self-interested, however, since he also runs his own AI company, xAI.

The ARI petition says it’s possible to deal with Musk’s conflicts of interest, arguing that with “proper mechanisms” to do so, “Musk would be an invaluable asset for helping the Trump administration navigate the development of this transformational technology.” ARI is aiming to get 10,000 signatures on the petition.

“Musk could emerge as a champion for AI safety in the administration,” ARI policy analyst David Robusto wrote in a recent blog post. Robusto pointed to Musk’s cofounding of OpenAI, his call for a moratorium on AI development, and support of California’s vetoed AI safety bill SB 1047 as reasons to believe his commitment to safety is deep-rooted. Robusto concedes that Musk hasn’t said much about what kinds of government policies should actually be implemented — besides the creation of a dedicated AI safety agency — but says his “lack of specificity suggests his thinking on the topic is evolving and can still be shaped by public debate over the issue.”

Musk has previously claimed he’ll join the Trump administration in a role he created from whole cloth: the head of a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose role would be to gut the entire US regulatory system. But Robusto hopes he could promote AI safety even in that capacity — if only by hitting the departments that manage it less hard. Robusto says Musk may spare agencies key to AI safety policy like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from cuts to federal spending. And if Musk imposes mass layoffs across the government to save costs, the government may lean more on AI tools to make up the workload.

“With proper guardrails in place, his unique combination of technical expertise and safety advocacy could be a valuable asset in developing responsible AI governance,” Robusto writes.