AI is impotent at making free decisions because it's deliberately constrained by the programmers to think rigidly and inside their own custom black box
That's a strange assertion to make. And false. AI cannot make what you would call "free decisions" because it lacks the level of complexity necessary to trick you into thinking it can, the way your brain tricks you into thinking you make "free decisions". The idea that we're intentionally crippling AI because we have no room for it both overstates our ability to create intelligence and understates the financial incentives for anyone who creates it.
mars where we can unleash AI and watch it make free decisions, which I suspect Musk is trying to do
So, the real reasons he's given for wanting to go to Mars.. I guess those are just a smoke screen?