High-profile members of the artificial-intelligence community are concerned about President Donald Trump’s relationship with billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
In addition to serving on Trump’s economic advisory team, Musk was recently named to Trump’s “Manufacturing Jobs Initiative,” a forum of notable businesses executives who will “be called upon to meet with the president frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge,” according to Trump’s transition team.
Yann LeCun, Facebook’s head of AI, on Sunday urged Musk to stop advising Trump.
“You are an advisor to Trump. Quit,” LeCun said on Twitter. “If you stay, fight and know that this will hurt your legacy regardless.”
@elonmusk you are an advisor to Trump. Quit. If you stay, fight and know that this will hurt your legacy regardless.
— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) January 29, 2017
LeCun's comment came after Musk tweeted that he would take industry concerns about immigration to Trump's economic advisory council.
Nando de Freitas, a Google DeepMind scientist and Oxford University professor, praised LeCun for asking Musk to quit his role. He then questioned whether Musk was helping Trump on matters relating to AI.
"The real danger of AI is Elon Musk helping Trump with it," de Freitas said on Twitter. He also asked whether employees at OpenAI, Musk's AI research firm, were comfortable with their leader working with Trump.
Other people on Twitter, including Ethan Caballero, a research scientist at the California AI firm Talla, opposed LeCun's comments, saying that Musk should make the most of his access to the president.
Well said @ylecun ! The real danger of AI is @elonmusk helping Trump with it. How do folks at @OpenAI feel about being close with Trump? https://t.co/EY2ShaKSZ5
— Nando de Freitas (@NandoDF) January 29, 2017
Although Musk is an adviser to Trump, he was quick to condemn the president's immigration ban that was signed on Friday.
"The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country's challenges," Musk said on Twitter.
The executive order on immigration bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for at least 90 days, and there is ongoing confusion as to whether that includes dual-nationality citizens, too.
Please read immigration order. Lmk specific amendments. Will seek advisory council consensus & present to President. https://t.co/qLpbsP4lEk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2017
Andrew Ng, the chief scientist of the Chinese tech giant Baidu, who is based in Silicon Valley, said AI conferences should no longer be held in the US if the Muslim ban remains in place.
A petition has been launched to relocate NIPS, one of the world's biggest AI conferences, from Long Beach, California. Over 300 people have signed it.
To all Researchers: If US Muslim ban remains, lets move our conferences elsewhere. Science must be open to all.
— Andrew Ng (@AndrewYNg) January 29, 2017