Musk no longer world’s richest person
Musk loses the top spot on Forbes’ 2023 billionaires list to Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, of France. Arnault gained $53 billion, the biggest gain of any billionaire in 2022, taking his fortune $211 billion, $31 billion more than Musk, according to Forbes’ calculations.
Musk, Wozniak, join thousands calling for AI slowdown
More than 1,000 artificial intelligence experts, researchers and backers, including Musk and Wozniak, sign an open letter calling for an immediate pause on the creation of ‘giant’ AIs for at least six months, so the capabilities and dangers of systems such as GPT-4 can be properly studied and mitigated.
Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control…Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable…
We agree [with Sam Altman that it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems and for the most advanced efforts to agree to limit the rate of growth of compute used for creating new models.] That point is now.
If researchers will not voluntarily pause their work on AI models more powerful than GPT-4, the letter’s benchmark for “giant” models, then “governments should step in”, the authors say.
“This does not mean a pause on AI development in general, merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities
Musk: Twitter For You tab, polls to be restricted to verified users
Musk announces that from April 15th only Twitter verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations and polls. Musk says this change is to stop ‘advanced AI bot swarms taking over’.
Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations. The is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle. Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.
When some users question the decision, he says:
My prediction is that this will be the only platform you can trust
Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations.
The is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle.
Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023
Twitter source code posted to GitHub
Part of Twitter’s source code is posted on GitHub but has been taken down when Twitter requested its removal. In the takedown request, Twitter said an account called ‘FreeSpeechEnthusiast’ had infringed copyrights owned by the company, and asked for information that could identify the owner of the account. GitHub:
GitHub does not generally comment on decisions to remove content. However, in the interest of transparency, we share every DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] takedown request publicly
Marked down Tesla vehicles spark China price war
Tesla marks down its prices, causing a price war in China, by selling vehicles there for as much as 50% less than what they cost in Europe and the United States. The Tesla Model 3 sedan and the Model Y crossover are both manufactured at a plant just outside Shanghai. The massive markdown is forcing rival vehicle manufacturers to slash prices also, in an effort to maintain sales.
Musk values Twitter at $20 billion
A person familiar with an email Musk sent to Twitter staff says Musk has offered Twitter employees stock grants that value the company at $20 billion. The reported valuation is less than half of the $44 billion that Musk paid to acquire the social media platform.
Musk: Saudi, UAE investments in SpaceX ‘not true’
Musk denies the report that investors from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates plan to invest in an upcoming multi-billion dollar funding round for SpaceX.
Not true
Not true
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2023
Saudi, Abu Dhabi companies to invest in SpaceX
An Abu Dhabi-based company and a unit of Saudi Arabia’s investment fund plan to invest in a multi-billion dollar funding round for SpaceX. The round is reportedly expected to value Musk’s company at about $140 billion.
Musk sends 2:30am email to Twitter staff: remote work unacceptable
Musk reportedly emails Twitter staff at 2:30 in the morning, telling them again that he finds remote work unacceptable, and complains that half of the employees at his San Francisco headquarters were out of office the day before.
[The] office is not optional
Musk: Silicon Valley Bank collapse reminiscent of 1929
While not getting into specifics, Musk says the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10th bears some similarity to the 1929 Wall Street crisis, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 23% in two days and ushered in the Great Depression. Along with Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital also imploded. In response to a thread by Ark Invest CIO Cathie Wood.
Lot of current year similarities to 1929
Musk’s statement contradicts most of those from Wall Street’s biggest names, who do not expect a similar stock market crash.
Lot of current year similarities to 1929
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 15, 2023
Lineker contacts Musk after Twitter user sends abusive message to son
Lineker tweets a screenshot of a private message sent by a Twitter user describing his eldest son, George, as a “mug” who needed to be “burned at the stake” for defending his father.
Is this acceptable @Twitter @elonmusk? And I don’t mean the grammar.
Musk does not respond.
Is this acceptable @Twitter @elonmusk? And I don’t mean the grammar. pic.twitter.com/fCVIIq3we2
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 14, 2023
Musk ‘open’ to buying Silicon Valley Bank
Responding to a Twitter user who suggested that the social media platform “buy SVB and become a digital bank,” Musk tweets that he’s “open to the idea.” (In 2022, he purchased Twitter, which was also struggling.)
I’m open to the idea
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2023
Musk buys land for own town
Musk’s companies are reportedly buying land in Texas with the hope of incorporating their own town, where employees can live and work. The town is to be called Snailbrook, an apparent reference to the mascot of Musk’s tunneling firm, the Boring Company. Snailbrook reportedly includes plans to build more than 100 homes, as well as neighborhood features such as a pool and outdoor sports area.
Musk incorporates X.AI
0 0 Mark Devlin Mark Devlin2023-04-17 16:22:562023-04-17 16:22:56Musk incorporates X.AIMusk ‘not saying’ Starship will get to orbit
SpaceX will debut its Starship vehicle in a month or so, but the chances of its first-ever orbital mission being a success are apparently only about 50%.
I’m not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement. So, won’t be boring!…So I think we’ve got, hopefully, about an 80% chance of reaching orbit this year. It’ll probably take us a couple more years to achieve full and rapid reusability.
According to Musk, Starship will be the most powerful rocket to ever fly, featuring about 2.5 times more thrust at liftoff than NASA’s Saturn V. SpaceX hopes that, among other things, Starship will get people and cargo to the moon and Mars. It is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, which Musk considers the most important breakthrough for making Mars colonization and other ambitious exploration feats feasible.
Musk supports Adams, says ‘The media is racist’
The media is racist. For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians. Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist.
For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians.
Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America.
Maybe they can try not being racist.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023
Musk’s cost-cutting hurts Goldman Sachs
Musk’s “cost-cutting exercise” contributes to a rapid growth in delinquencies of commercial real estate loans for Goldman Sachs. After Musk’s attempt to avoid taking over Twitter, he began seeking ways to cut costs, which included not paying rent. Now, Twitter’s landlord, Columbia Property, is suing and defaulted on its loan from Goldman Sachs as a result. (Goldman Sachs was part of a group of banks that provided $1.7 billion in loans to Columbia Property. The loan was secured against seven office buildings in San Francisco and New York, two of which accommodate large Twitter offices.)
Massive Twitter outage
Many users find they cannot tweet, retweet, quote tweet and direct message on Twitter, with users recieving messages such as:
You are over the daily limit for sending tweets
Some users could not access their direct message, with the tab only showing the message “something went wrong.”
Musk sends a brief email to Twitter staff, instructing them to “pause new feature development” in order to ensure “system stability and robustness”.
Twitter may not be working as expected for some of you. Sorry for the trouble. We're aware and working to get this fixed.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 8, 2023
Musk announces Master Plan 3, says ‘the future is bright’
Musk announces the the third version of Tesla’s “master plan” on March 1. At the upcoming investor day to be held at its gigafactory in Texas, Tesla said it will share details about its next-generation vehicle platforms, which Musk has said would produce a vehicle about half the cost of Tesla’s current vehicle underpinings. Tesla also said it will discuss long-term expansion plans, capital allocation and other subjects. Master Plan, Part Deux was released in 2016 and Part 1 in 2006.
Master Plan 3, the path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth will be presented on March 1. The future is bright!
Master Plan 3, the path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth will be presented on March 1.
The future is bright! pic.twitter.com/11ug0LRlbD
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2023
Report: Twitter has 180,000 US subscribers
According to The Information, only 180,000 people in the US have paid for a Twitter Blue subscription, 0.2% of the website’s monthly active users. The publication said it saw the information on a document that also revealed that 62% company’s paying users reside in the US, meaning Twitter has approximately 290,000 subscribers worldwide. Musk told Twitter employees last year that he wants half of the website’s revenue to come from subscriptions. One avenue the company is considering to earn more from its subscription services is to offer a higher-priced membership tier that allows users to browse the website with zero ads.