Elon Musk is a prime example of the problem with the people who are creating the daunting new world of artificial intelligence.

Early on in the development of AI, Musk warned about the extreme dangers of creating a super intelligent entity that, once it achieves powers beyond the capabilities and control of humans, could do existential harm to humanity. He has said a big reason he became a key investor in Open AI was to support research and development of AI that was not driven by making as much money as possible — a non-profit company that would put the interests of people first.

That, Musk says, is the basis of his lawsuit against Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, the two Open AI co-founders who decided to ditch the non-profit altruism and go for the billions. Altman, by the way, also has warned about AI’s dangers and, at one point anyway, believed the federal government would need to step in to make sure the vast wealth this new technology would create would be shared with all Americans, particularly those many, many people whose livelihoods would disappear as AI took over more and more jobs.

Altman was right to think that someone needs to set ground rules for AI development and protect common people from the disruption of a radically changed economy. He and many others in the tech world have acknowledged that none of the high-powered, mega-rich Silicon Valley entrepreneurs vying to win the race to AI dominance would ever, on their own, slow down their pace just because bad things might happen. Only government could exercise enough authority to set limits on AI.

Yet the people in the political realm who have been the main beneficiaries of the tech moguls’ largesse are largely anti-regulation Republicans who will let the techies do whatever they want. Despite his fears about the dark side of AI, Musk is chief among them. Most notably, the millions Musk donated to Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign gave a huge boost to Trump’s return to the White House.

Musk’s support of Trump seems counterintuitive since one of Trump’s first acts in his second term was to scuttle the $7,500 credit that had been given to buyers of electric cars. Tesla, Musk’s electric car company, suffered because of it. Trump also has pummeled the alternative energy industry, another sector in which Musk has a big stake.

Apparently, Musk’s direct business interests do not motivate him as much as his greater impulse to be free of any government interference (which is why he moved Tesla headquarters from Democrat-run California to Republican-run Texas). Musk does not like anyone telling him what he can or cannot do. In this, he is not an outlier in the tech world.

Musk and his peers are oligarchs sitting on mountains of money, and they know those mountains will grow into mountain ranges as AI sets off a massive tectonic shift in America’s economy. Yes, they know, as they amass greater wealth for themselves and their investors, they are toying with calamity, and some of them may theorize that it would be wise to have an umpire supervise their game, but, the truth is, they just want to keep playing by their own their own rules.

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