Larry Page, Elon Musk on opposite sides in debate over risks of AI

Elon Musk celebrated his 44th birthday in July 2015 at a three-day party thrown by his wife at a California wine country resort dotted with cabins.

This was years before Twitter became X and Tesla had a profitable year. Larry Page, a party guest, was still the chief executive of Google. And artificial intelligence (AI) had pierced the public consciousness only a few years before, when it was used to identify cats on YouTube — with 16 percent accuracy. AI was the big topic of conversation back then. The tone soon turned contentious as the two debated whether AI would ultimately elevate humanity or destroy it.