December 12, 2015 10:53 AM EST lon Musk and other technology giants have chipped in $1 billion toward researching artificial intelligence to “benefit humanity,” the business magnate said. The 44-year-old Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced on Friday that he has helped fund a new nonprofit called OpenAI, which will be devoted to creating intelligent machines or software. “Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return,” the group said in a statement. “We believe AI should be an extension of individual human wills and, in the spirit of liberty, as broadly and evenly distributed as is possible safely.”