Anthropic famously employs a Scottish philosopher named Amanda Askell.
Her job is to imbue its chatbot, Claude, with a personality and a set of moral guardrails. She is essentially teaching it to be cool and good.
Elon Musk, however, doesn’t think she’s qualified.
“Those without children lack a stake in the future,” Musk posted on X in response to a profile of Askell published by The Wall Street Journal.
The Journal profile does not say whether Askell has kids. Musk, who has imbued his own chatbot, Grok, with a distinct personality, has 14 of them. Musk is known for promoting a brand of pronatalism that’s become popular among Silicon Valley elites.
Askell responded with her trademark dry intellectualism.
“I think it depends on how much you care about people in general vs. your own kin,” Askell wrote. “I do intend to have kids, but I still feel like I have a strong personal stake in the future because I care a lot about people thriving, even if they’re not related to me.”
“I think caring about your children can make you feel invested in the future in a new and very profound way, and I do understand people wanting to convey that,” she added.
The responses to their short back-and-forth were as varied as you might expect on Musk’s social media network. A day later, Askell posted again.
“I’m too right wing for the left and I’m too left wing for the right,” she said. “I’m too into humanities for those in tech and I’m too into tech for those in the humanities. What I’m learning is that failing to polarize is itself quite polarizing.”
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