Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk sat down this week for an extensive conversation ranging from technology, AI, politics, and even religion and questions of the metaphysical. These two prominent figures are active on Musk’s X, and frequently call out infringements on free speech and other authoritarian measures they see as a danger.

In one interesting point in the interview, Musk described how he diverged in his views from his friend Larry Page on AI safety. Page evidently believes that we will “upload our minds to the computer,” to which Peterson said, “There’s not much difference between that and the death of humanity.”

Musk nonetheless is the developer of his own AI system and believes that AI can aid humanity’s perennial quest for understanding. Musk talked about how, as a child, he read over many of the documents from the world’s great religions, and then moved onto philosophy, but only stopped his desperate search when he read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which convinced him that humanity has the habit of “asking the wrong questions.” He now wants to create an AI system that can help us “understand the universe.”

The basic question is, of course: could that actually ever happen?

It probably depends on what one means by “understand.” Can computers “understand” concepts in the same way humans do? Are they truly intelligent minds that can process and grapple with data and interpret it into meaningful patterns? I personally doubt it. There is a categorical difference between computation and comprehension. However adept human-designed algorithms become, only humans will be able to make sense of its creations. Musk seems to have convictions, then, about AI’s limits, and fears a future in which technological accelerationists might try to “upload consciousness” into a centralized AI.

Musk also talked about his commitment to free speech, which led to his decision to buy out Twitter, and how a culture of censorship is antithetical to the principles the United States was built upon.