Musk: AI could be ‘a danger’
Musk warns that AI could be a danger to humans, calling it “a double-edged sword” and saying it is not “necessary for anything we’re doing.”
If you have a genie that can grant you anything, that presents a danger…
He thinks AI advances the end of empires and expects governments to use it for weapons development before anything else.
There’s a little late-stage empire vibes right now…So just having more advanced weapons on the battlefield that can react faster than any human could is really what AI is capable of. Any future wars between advanced countries or at least countries with drone capability will be very much the drone wars.
On AI’s potential for peace, he says:
One way to achieve world peace is to take all the weapons away from the humans so they can no longer use them. I don’t think the AI is going to try to destroy all humanity but it might put us under strict controls
In terms of politics and the upcoming US presidential election, he says:
One of the first places you need to be careful of where AI is used is social media to manipulate public opinion. I think it’s something we need to be on the lookout for in the way of minimising the impact of AI manipulation. We’re certainly taking that seriously at Twitter and I think we’re putting in all the protections to detect large-scale manipulation of the system.
Musk details succession plans
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Musk discusses his succession plans, including potential successors, how to handle ownership control of his companies, his plan for an educational institution to control his shares, and how he will not automatically give his children shares in his companies:
Succession is one of the toughest, age-old problems. It’s plagued countries, kings, prime ministers, presidents and CEOs, since the dawn of history. There is no obvious solution.
There are particular individuals that I’ve told the board, ‘Look, if something happens to me unexpectedly, this is my recommendation for who should take over.’ The board is aware who my recommendation is. It’s up to them of course.
I want to make sure the stewardship ultimately accrues the benefit of humanity. We’re not always successful in that, but that is aspirationally our goal. I have one idea that is partly in place, which is to create an education institution that would control most of my vote.
I am not of the school of automatically giving my kids some share of the companies, even if they have no interest, or inclination, or ability to manage the companies. I think that would be a mistake. It’s a very hard problem to solve.
Elon Musk on his succession plan: "There are particular individuals that I've told the board look If something happens to me unexpectedly, this is my recommendation for who should take over. The board is aware who my recommendation is. It's up to them of course." pic.twitter.com/uaDFXj5oQD
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 23, 2023
Musk: Tesla will ‘strongly consider’ building Gigafactory in England
In an interview for The Wall Street Journal, Musk says Tesla is preparing to look for a location to build a new battery factory later this year and would assess England as an option.
I will strongly consider England for a future location of a gigafactory. We are not currently looking at new locations but we will probably towards the end of this year.
Tesla already operates several production facilities in Fremont, California, Austin, Texas, Berlin, Germany, and Shanghai, China. A factory in Mexico was announced in early 2023, but ground has not been broken yet.
Musk criticises NPR: ‘You don’t generally bite the hand that feeds you’
In an interview with The Babylon Bee, Musk talks about NPR leaving Twitter, after the company labelled it as state0funded media:
We’re trying to apply the rules consistently at Twitter. If we’re going to call some media state-affiliated, then we should apply the label equally. They got pretty upset at that, and said that ‘state-affiliated’ implies that the state has editorial authority and influence over the content. So you’re saying you don’t have that? How self-aware are you? NPR literally, on their own website, said government funding was essential to their operation. We even changed [the label] from ‘state-affiliated’, to ‘state-funded’. That’s literally a statement of fact. But they’re unhappy with that. They have got to their punches in criticizing the government. It’s just a guess, based on their extreme dependence on government funding. I mean you don’t generally bite the hand that feeds you.
How will we ever stay informed on Twitter without NPR? pic.twitter.com/wWNN0fv8uq
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 31, 2023
Musk apologizes to Magneto for Soros comparison
In an interview with The Babylon Bee, Musk is asked about his comments comparing Soros to the Marvel character, Magneto, while claiming Soros ‘hates humanity:
Sorry Magneto. Y’know, I shouldn’t have said that. It was unfair to Magneto.
@elonmusk apologizes to Magneto for comparing him to George Soros. pic.twitter.com/hfEzvwCJai
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 31, 2023
Musk: SpaceX ‘six weeks’ away from second Starship launch
In a Twitter Spaces discussion with Vance, Musk says SpaceX is six weeks away from launching their second attempt to reach orbit with their Starship rocket. Despite implementing “well over a thousand” changes since the first attempt the launch will not go ahead unless the Federal Aviation Administration gives it clearance and signs off on the Starship’s self-destruct system which was slow to respond on the first attempt. During the Super Heavy’s maiden flight, a half-dozen engines shut down or never started and the Starship never separated from the Super Heavy first stage. The next test will use ‘hot staging’, which means that the Starship engines will ignite before separation.
We shut down most of the engines on the booster, leaving just a few running and then at the same time, start the engines on the ship, or upper stage
Musk says roughly 1,000 cubic meters of steel-reinforced high-strength concrete will be added to the launchpad to avoid damaging breakup.
On top of that, we have a sort of a steel sandwich, which is basically two thick plates of steel that are welded together with channels going through (with) perforations in the top so it will actually shoot a lot of water out. Think of it like a gigantic upside-down shower head. It’s going to basically blast water upwards while the rocket is over the pad to counteract the massive amount of heat from the booster. The booster is basically like the world’s biggest cutting torch with a massive amount of … heat, but also a massive amount of force.
Musk says the chance of the test getting to orbit is 60%:
I think the probability of this next flight working, getting to orbit, is much higher than the last one. Maybe it’s like 60%. It depends on how well we do at stage separation…In launching, what you’re doing is trying to resolve the unknowns which you cannot know before you launch, or at least we are not smart enough to know. So like I said, what appears to be the biggest risk right now is stage separation.
Daypart.AI founder details Burnt Hair domain trade with Boring
Jeremy Sonne, founder of Daypart.AI, details his trade of the burnthair.com website domain to the Boring Company. Just after Musk announced Boring’s plan to sell “Burnt Hair” cologne, Sonne bought the domain and tweeted at Musk, offering him the domain if the billionaire would “have lunch with me at the gigafactory or coffee or something like that.” (The tweet has since been deleted.) Minutes later, Boring messaged him directly, telling him to email them about the idea.
“They said lunch wouldn’t happen,” Sonne says, so he made more “outlandish” requests like a phone call with Musk or a “ride on his private plane,” until Boring finally agreed to give him a tour of its Texas facility and some Boring products (including one of the first 10 bottles of Burnt Hair cologne) in exchange for the domain. Sonne’s wife and four-year-old son also went on the tour, during which, for security reasons, they were not allowed to take out their phones. They also had to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevented them from talking about what they saw inside. Ownership of the domain, which now redirects to Boring’s main website, was transferred in December 2022. Sonne says the tour left a big impression on his son:
My four year old is on the spectrum and is like really obsessed with construction and that’s a special interest for him, construction, diggers, that sort of thing. Since we’ve gotten home, he has been building tunnels with Magna-Tiles and running his cars through them and stuff. Honestly, that was worth the entire adventure, just seeing him get really hyped up about it.