On Sunday, just before heading to the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a visit to Elon Musk in San Francisco. This meeting, which was live-streamed, held significance for both men. Netanyahu wanted to show his voters that he had the attention of the world’s richest man, while Musk wanted to demonstrate that he had a Jewish friend after being involved in an anti-Semitism scandal. Initially, the meeting appeared to be a staged photo opportunity, but it took an interesting turn.
After about 40 minutes, Musk and Netanyahu returned to the livestream for a panel discussion on artificial intelligence (AI) with MIT scientist Max Tegmark and Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI. While most reporters were only interested in the high-profile politicians, they missed the moment when Netanyahu challenged Musk and other technologists on their optimistic views of AI. This discussion revealed Netanyahu’s deeply pessimistic and confrontational worldview.
Netanyahu started off by asking how responsibility and ethics can be incorporated into the fast-paced development of AI. Musk acknowledged the concerns and admitted that there could be negative outcomes. However, Netanyahu strongly believed that AI would lead to negative outcomes, especially in terms of job displacement and increased wealth concentration. He argued that AI would create a larger divide between the rich and the poor and questioned if there was a solution to overcome this.
The discussion continued with the AI enthusiasts highlighting the potential benefits of their innovations, while Netanyahu raised practical objections and cited the Bible and Jewish philosophy to caution against the consequences of AI. Musk, on the other hand, described a positive future where AI would bring about a world without obligations, illness, or death. Netanyahu incredulously asked if this was the world Musk desired.
By the end of the panel, Netanyahu firmly expressed his skepticism and warned that the pace of AI development was outpacing the solutions needed to mitigate risks and maximize benefits. This public challenge by Netanyahu isn’t surprising, considering his longstanding pessimism and resistance towards optimistic promises of progress and change.
Netanyahu’s worldview is shaped by his cynical perspective on human nature and his belief that despite societal advancements, humans always find ways to persecute the powerless. He is skeptical of utopian ideals proposed by both progressive internationalists and Silicon Valley futurists, and instead, he places his faith in hard power. His views are influenced by a dark reading of Jewish history and his belief that the arc of history bends towards whoever has the power to shape it.
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