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Elon Musk honest interview about Twitter AI and the Future · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  Now have a man who bite something many measures at least
• 0:04
  as the world's greatest capitalist at the moment, Elon
• 0:07
  Musk. Thank you very much for coming
• 0:10
  and talking to us. You could argue at the moment
• 0:13
  that Us in the media, we have at least three Elon musk's to deal
• 0:16
  with. We have the proposed buyer of
• 0:19
  Twitter. We have the CEO of Tesla SpaceX
• 0:24
  much else and we have musk, the emerging political force and
• 0:28
  that's before we discover We'll discuss all the different
• 0:31
  provocations and tweets and so on, but maybe we can run through
• 0:35
  those three and let's begin with Twitter and I suppose, my
• 0:38
  question for you is, what is the status of the forty four billion
• 0:42
  deal? Forty four billion dollar deal
• 0:44
  to buy the company. If you look at the deal spreads
• 0:47
  at the moment, the investors seem to be betting that it won't
• 0:51
  happen. I suppose and it right here you
• 0:53
  have the qataris who amongst your backers.
• 0:57
  What you going to say to them and to us?
• 1:01
  First of all, I'd like to say your highness.
• 1:07
  Your excellencies, distinguished guests.
• 1:08
  Thank you very much for hosting me, virtually.
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  It's an honor to be here or be there virtually.
• 1:14
  And I actually wish I could be there in person.
• 1:18
  So, with respect to the Twitter transaction, there is a limit to
• 1:22
  what I can say publicly given that is somewhat of a sensitive
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  matter. So I like to be Gerd in my
• 1:31
  responses here. Such as not to generate
• 1:35
  incremental lawsuits and thing for that seems to be a rescue
• 1:40
  sometimes manage to overcome. Yes it deposition minimization
• 1:44
  is, I think important. Have you do have has have
• 1:50
  Twitter given you enough information?
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  Well, there are so a few unresolved matters, you've
• 1:58
  probably read about the As to whether the number of fake and
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  spam users on the system is less than 5% as Twitter claims which
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  I think is probably not most people's experience on when
• 2:13
  using Twitter. So we're still awaiting
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  resolution on that matter and that that is a very significant
• 2:20
  matter. So we're waiting resolution on
• 2:24
  that and then of course, there is the question of will the the
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  debt? Portion of the round come
• 2:33
  together and then we'll the shareholders voted in favor.
• 2:36
  So I think those are the three things that stand in the way
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  that need to be resolved before the transaction.
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  It can complete. What about the general state of
• 2:48
  the economy? Does that weigh on you?
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  When you think about this? I mean who's described it?
• 2:52
  You have a super bad feeling about the economy.
• 2:55
  Are you still in that position? I just said to you earlier, Joe
• 2:58
  Biden has just come out and said that a recession in America is
• 3:03
  not inevitable. How do you feel about the
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  economy? Well, I think the recession is
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  inevitable at some point as to whether there is a reception in
• 3:14
  the near term. I think that is more likely than
• 3:17
  not. It certainly isn't, it's not a
• 3:20
  certainty, but it appears more likely than not.
• 3:24
  And what do you think? I'm I'm I'm with you, I agree
• 3:30
  with you. I think it's more likely.
• 3:32
  Can I ask you one particular thing to do with the Twitter bid
• 3:35
  which is, you know, you are one of the biggest and fastest
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  growing investors in China Tesla.
• 3:41
  You've talked about it being a third of your sales going
• 3:45
  forward. You're now buying Twitter the
• 3:48
  kind of public forum for free speech.
• 3:51
  The Chinese historically, don't tend to be very enthusiastic
• 3:54
  about free speech. Are you worried about whether
• 3:59
  you can keep those two particular horses?
• 4:01
  Running is buying Twitter. Going to get you in trouble with
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  the Chinese? Well, Twitter does not operate
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  in. Yes of and I think change is not
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  as healthy as if you interfere with the free speech of the work
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  of the press in the US as far. As I know, I assume you're not
• 4:29
  under pressure to at Bloomberg to from China.
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  So I think there's I don't think there's gonna be an issue.
• 4:39
  And in terms, generally of that issue of freedom of speech and
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  Twitter you've talked about Twitter being making it even
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  Freer, letting more people onto it.
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  Is there a limit at all? To who you think should be
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  allowed on to Twitter? But we're aspiration for Twitter
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  or in general for the digital Town Square would be that.
• 5:01
  It is as inclusive in the broader sense, the word as
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  possible about it is it is An appealing system to use.
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  So I mean, ideally, I'd like to get like 80% of the, to North
• 5:19
  America and perhaps, I don't know, half the world or
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  something, ultimately, on on Twitter and in one form or
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  another and that needs, that means it must be something that
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  was appealing to people. It obviously cannot be a place
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  where they feel uncomfortable or harassed or they'll simply not
• 5:37
  use it. So And I think there's this big
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  difference between freedom of speech and freedom of reach and
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  that one can. Obviously, let's say, you know,
• 5:49
  say it's go in the middle of Times Square and pretty much
• 5:52
  yell. Anything you want.
• 5:54
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  back plays.com Ilan backblaze.com heel on the people
• 8:07
  around you. But you're kind of allowed to
• 8:10
  just sort of yell, whatever you want to live in a crowded
• 8:14
  public, place, more or less apart from.
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  This is this is a robbery probably that would get you in
• 8:20
  trouble. So but then that that whatever
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  you say have a controversial does not need to then be
• 8:28
  broadcast to the whole country. So I think generally the
• 8:34
  approach of Twitter should be to let people say what they want to
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  do. In the bounds of the law.
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  But then limit the who sees that based on any given Twitter,
• 8:48
  users preferences. So if your preferences are to
• 8:53
  see anything or read anything, then we'll do you'll get that
• 8:58
  and if your preferences are well, you prefer not to see your
• 9:05
  comments that you're fine defensive one form or another
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  then you You you can have that as a setting and not see it and
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  but I think one way or another one need to take the steps that
• 9:20
  in a that that entice most people to want to be on Twitter
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  and enjoy it and find it informative and entertaining and
• 9:29
  funny, you know, and just something and useful as useful
• 9:34
  as possible. It sounds like you want to be
• 9:36
  involved. Is your plan to be CEO.
• 9:38
  Oh of Twitter and if you do that, would you still keep being
• 9:43
  CEO of Tesla and SpaceX? Well, I would drive the product
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  which is what I do at SpaceX and Tesla.
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  So I drive the product and Technology whether I am that
• 9:59
  when I called to see you or something else is much less
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  important than my ability to drive the product in the right
• 10:06
  direction. I can I jump towards Tesla.
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  They're not, you know, most people it's very obvious.
• 10:13
  You have changed the car industry and in a dramatic way.
• 10:16
  I'm quite intrigued by one thing, which is your
• 10:18
  competitors. But where do you see competition
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  coming from? Do you see it coming from the
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  old car makers, coming back at you?
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  I just saw a forecast that maybe in a couple of years, time
• 10:29
  Volkswagen would be bigger than you in electric cars, or do you
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  see it coming from new place? Do you believe that?
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  I believe that forecast was from you.
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  You. Yes, it was.
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  Yeah. And do you agree with that?
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  I would not agree with that forecast and do you bet you see
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  people like Volkswagen and motors and people like that is,
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  as the opponent's or do you see people like China, that your new
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  Chinese companies? Where do you see the most
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  vibrant? Competition and electric cars.
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  Let's say that I am very impressed with the companies
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  into the car companies in China and just in general.
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  With companies in China, I think they're extremely competitive,
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  hardworking, and smart. And and I think this is going to
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  be just a massive wave of Chinese products going out into
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  the world. The already are but you know,
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  for example, I can almost feel the iPhones are made in China.
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  By contract manufacturers for Apple but I think it will see
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  just a large wave of products being exported from China.
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  But in many Industries, you know, like same electric cars.
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  Do they have an advantage at all?
• 11:46
  Yeah. Yeah, no II do think.
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  Well, I should say from Tessa perspective.
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  We don't really think about other competitors.
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  Our constraints are much more in raw materials and, and being
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  able to scale up production. So our constraints are not
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  imposed Upon Us by competitors. But rather the just imposed Upon
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  Us by the realities of the supply chain.
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  And building up made factoring capacity.
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  So I mean I as anyone knows who was try to ordered it order a
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  Tesla, they demand for our cars is extremely high and the wait
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  list is long. So our and and this is not
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  intentional. It we are increasing production
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  capacity as fast as humanly possible.
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  So that is so relaxing, we really don't think about Comfort
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  a competition. Do we just think about how How
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  do we address the limiting factors in the supply chain?
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  And in our own industrial capacity.
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  Basically, we need to pull the factories faster and then we
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  need to look ahead to whatever the choke points.
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  Are in the whole lithium ion battery, supply chain from
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  Mining and refining to Katherine and reproduction and cell
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  formation. So can you can you can you set
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  the record straight on one thing?
• 13:13
  Which is this issue about the layoffs?
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  I think you said initially that Tesla 10%.
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  Out of the workforce will be cut, then ten percent of salary
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  would be cut, then salaried. Would stay flat flat and overall
• 13:25
  headcount would go up. What is the number?
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  I know there's already I think being a lawsuit about the 10% is
• 13:32
  is 10% the goal to reduce the workforce.
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  So what is the number that we should think about all that
• 13:39
  you're planning? Yes, so Tesla is reducing the
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  salaried Workforce by roughly 10 percent over the next probably
• 13:51
  three months. Or so the, we expect to grow our
• 13:58
  hourly work force. Whereas quite clear that we
• 14:01
  expect to grow out, are entirely Workforce but we we grew very
• 14:08
  fast with under the salary side And we grew a little too fast in
• 14:14
  some areas and so it requires a reduction in salary Workforce
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  and we were about two thirds hourly and 1/3 salary.
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  So I guess technically attempts at reduction in the solid work
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  forces. Only roughly a three, three and
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  a half percent reduction, in total headcount.
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  Now I think that number is important legally, isn't it?
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  Because I think people are trying to say if you if you're
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  going to lay off ten percent of your Workforce, you have even in
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  America to make an announcement about that.
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  We did make an announcement. Yes, let's not read too much
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  into a pre-emptive lawsuit that has no standing that, that is a
• 15:00
  small, loose lawsuit of minor consequence, that just anything
• 15:02
  that related to Tesla gets big headlines, but it is what
• 15:05
  whether it is, you know, a bicycle accident or something
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  much more serious. It's so, anyways, it seems like
• 15:13
  anything related to Tesla gets a lot of clicks, whether whether
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  it is Trivial or significant, I would put that lawsuit referring
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  to in the trivial category. So a year from now, I think our
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  head count will be higher in both salaried and obviously an
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  hourly but in the short term of next few months we expect to see
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  like I said roughly 10 percent reduction in salary salary
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  Workforce which is actually just really only Three, three and a
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  half percent reduction, in total headcount, and not a super
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  material. Should we jump to that loud?
• 15:53
  That third Elon Musk. The, and the uncontroversial one
• 15:57
  in politics, you've indicated that the Florida governor Ron
• 16:01
  DeSantis is someone you could get behind if he ran for
• 16:04
  president and wondered if you're still in that position.
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  And whether you would for instance, think about supporting
• 16:10
  Donald Trump, if he were to run Well, I was simply asked if
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  there was, if I had decided on who I would be supporting in the
• 16:20
  next presidential race. And I said I had not decided if
• 16:26
  we would support, then, I was asked, who might you be leaning
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  towards? I said, possibly DeSantis. and
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  now, and now I'm asking you about Trump whether you would
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  consider him I think I'm undecided at this point on that
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  election, I wanted you. You talked about putting him
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  money behind a super moderate, Super PAC in the US and I
• 16:52
  wondered how much money do you think you're going to push into
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  that? What kind of support would you
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  push? I haven't decided on an amount
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  but it would be some I some non-trivial figure I think I
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  mean at least sort of on the order of a non-trivial is mean a
• 17:07
  lot. Sorry.
• 17:10
  Non-trivial, could mean a lot of money with you I was guessing
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  well, I don't know, I'm not a sailor on exact amount, but
• 17:21
  perhaps would be 20 or 25 million dollars Just on that
• 17:25
  issue. I mean again you look at the
• 17:27
  Samsung what DeSantis says, you look at what Trump says and
• 17:32
  those sort of politicians they again are people who make a
• 17:34
  large noise about China and I wondered whether you thought
• 17:38
  that was also an issue for you in terms of business in China.
• 17:49
  Well no, I don't think so. You're a brave man.
• 17:54
  Is it can I, can I ask you over the weekend?
• 17:57
  You you tweeted your support of one cryptocurrency?
• 18:01
  You've seen the kind of Carnage that has been happening in
• 18:03
  crypto, currencies at the moment.
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  What is happening? And do you still think people
• 18:09
  should should invest? Or is it a more selective
• 18:13
  approach? What?
• 18:15
  I have never said that people should invest in crypto, In the
• 18:20
  case of Tesla SpaceX myself, we that survey section tells own
• 18:29
  ways of all did buy some Bitcoin, but it's a small
• 18:34
  percentage of our total cash and near cash assets.
• 18:40
  So you know, not not a less significant.
• 18:45
  I also ordered some Dogecoin And Tesla accepts those coin for
• 18:52
  some merchandise and SpaceX will do the same.
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  And and I intend to personally support a Dogecoin because I
• 19:02
  just saw a lot of people who are not that wealthy who, you know,
• 19:08
  have encouraged me to bite and support those coins.
• 19:12
  So I'm responding to that those people are just people.
• 19:16
  We're not going to walk around the factory at SpaceX.
• 19:18
  So Tesla, they've asked me to participate doge coins found
• 19:21
  during. So this day's going, I think
• 19:24
  it's come down a lot. It's down about 80, 90 percent,
• 19:27
  or it's down the loss. And that's the reason why you
• 19:30
  you came out and said that you still thought there was value
• 19:33
  there. I said, I support all coin and
• 19:38
  I'm doing now. Can I ask you one?
• 19:40
  Last question is, I noticed that you you're going to unleash a
• 19:46
  humanoid robot to the unveiled on September the 30th.
• 19:50
  I wonder if there's anything more.
• 19:51
  You could tell us about that. Well, I hope that we will have
• 19:56
  an interesting prototype to show people that we were very
• 20:01
  talented team at Tesla that I working with closely.
• 20:06
  We have a prototype, humanoid robot ready by the end of
• 20:11
  September, and I think we're tracking to that point.
• 20:14
  So that and I'll be a few other exciting things that we talk
• 20:17
  about it. The Tesla Eid, but I really want
• 20:21
  to, you know, we have these sort of AI Day events to just
• 20:27
  emphasize that Tesla is a lot more than a car company and that
• 20:30
  we are in my view, the leading real world, AI company.
• 20:36
  That exists will you will you did you see at all the drama
• 20:41
  about the the Google where tweet where people at least one
• 20:47
  engineer, thought that what was happening in terms of their AI
• 20:50
  Machinery was closer to human thought than had been seen
• 20:54
  before and quite worried had a personality?
• 20:57
  Is that something that you think about at all?
• 20:59
  And all you worried about I think, I think we should be
• 21:03
  concerned about Ai and I said, for a long time that I think
• 21:07
  this would be able to be in AI regulatory agency, that oversees
• 21:12
  artificial intelligence for the public good.
• 21:16
  And I think just as there's anything that for anything that
• 21:21
  where there is a risk to the public, whether that's a the
• 21:24
  Food and Drug Administration, or Federal Aviation Administration,
• 21:28
  Federal Communications Commission, whether it's a
• 21:30
  public, Briscoe public good at State.
• 21:34
  There is good to have sort of a government referee and a
• 21:39
  regulatory body. And I think we should have that
• 21:41
  for AI and we don't currently and that would be my
• 21:45
  recommendation. You know, must keeping
• 21:48
  incredibly kind with your time.