Elon Musk talks up AI safety while fighting regulation in wild week of strange alliances

Elon Musk recently took conflicting positions on AI safety, agreeing with rivals that foundation model labs (companies building large-scale AI systems) should slow development, while simultaneously opposing government regulation and advising President Trump against industry oversight. Musk suggested that companies test each other's AI models to find safety problems before release, rather than allowing heavy regulatory control, which he described as a 'one-way ratchet' that becomes difficult to reduce once implemented.