Petition urges Trump to make Musk special adviser on AI

Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), an artificial intelligence (AI) advocacy group, is calling on President-elect Trump to make Elon Musk a special adviser on AI in his second administration.

The nonprofit launched the petition Monday, arguing Musk is well-positioned to help ensure that the U.S. continues to lead on AI.

“There’s no one better positioned to help the Trump Administration navigate this new technology,” Satya Thallam, ARI’s senior vice president of government affairs, said in a statement.

“This is someone who has both pioneered AI advancement and consistently sounded the alarm about AI’s potential risks,” Thallam added. “Musk knows what it’s going to take to make America lead on safe AI.”

Musk has played a key role in supporting the advancement of AI. He helped found OpenAI, whose ChatGPT tool brought AI to the public and sparked a race between tech firms to develop and release their own models.

The billionaire also has his own AI company, xAI, and has increasingly centered the technology at his electric vehicle company, Tesla.

However, he has voiced concerns about AI safety over the years — a key issue for ARI, whose mission is to advocate for AI policy in the public interest.

Musk made an unsuccessful attempt to buy DeepMind to prevent Google from acquiring the AI lab over concerns about how then-CEO Larry Page would develop the technology, according to The Wall Street Journal.

He also sued OpenAI and fellow co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman earlier this year, alleging they manipulated him into supporting the venture by promising it would create safe and transparent AI. Instead, he argued that they abandoned the company’s original mission.

“With proper mechanisms in place to handle conflicts of interest, Musk would be an invaluable asset for helping the Trump administration navigate the development of this transformational technology,” ARI wrote in its petition.

The nonprofit hopes to gather 10,000 signatures on its petition in the next month, according to a press release.

Musk has become a close ally of Trump and is expected to hold some role in his next administration. The president-elect has previously suggested the tech mogul could lead a panel focused on cutting government costs.

The billionaire poured millions of dollars into a pro-Trump super PAC that he founded earlier this year, which took the lead on the Trump campaign’s get-out-the-vote efforts in swing states. He also used his massive platform on X, the social platform he owns, to amplify the president-elect's message online.