go yourself is that clear you are about to watch the most controversial interview that Ela mus has ever given he talked about all of his companies including Tesla and this one is a must watch for all Tesla stock investors as well as all Ela mus followers we've been friends for 16 years um and I promised you I'd be here and that's why I'm here well I appreciate you being here for any other reason but let me ask you this this then let go go at it just tell me what happened you you you write this tweet that says that this is the actual truth people read that tweet yes and they say Elon Musk is an anti-semite that he he he he is he is riling up this base you're hearing it from uh as I said the White House you're hearing it from Jewish groups all over um I think Jonathan greenblat from the ADL is here um there's there's lots of people who say this and by the way it's not just that there you read the whole thing I did and that's what I want to ask responses excuse me I said more more responses yeah I said more I said more than what you just read yes no there was ABS there was absolutely more yes um but I'll tell you the thing that struck me it wasn't um and I'm an American Jew um it wasn't just the people who who had the that view it was actually people who ha who really are anti-semites who said oh my goodness go go Elon this is fabulous and that actually was the thing that really uh really set me back and I said to myself what's going on here and I want to know how you felt about that in that moment when you when you saw all of this happening yeah um well first of all I I did clarify uh almost immediately uh what I meant I would say that that was um you know if I could go back and say I should in retrospect um not have replied to that particular person um and I should have uh written in Greater length as to what I meant um I did subsequently CL in replies uh but those clarifications were ignored by the media um and essentially I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me um and arguably to those who are anti-semitic uh to and for that I'm quite sorry that that is not that was not my intention um so I I did you know uh post on my primary timeline to be absolutely clear that I'm not anti-semitic um and that I in fact if anything am phos um and the trip to Israel was planned before any of that happened uh it was neither here nor there do you see see this thing M do you know what it is I do because I actually followed your entire trip to Israel right why don't you tell everybody this is this says says bring them home the hostages it was given to me by the parents of of one of the hostages and I said I would wear it as long as there was a hostage store remaining and I have um what was that trip like and obviously you know that there's a public perception that and and you're clarifying this now um but there's a public perception that that was part of a apology tour if you will that this had been said online there was all of the criticism there was advertisers leaving we talked to Bob Iger stop you hope uh don't advertise you don't want them to advertise no what do you mean if somebody's going to try to Blackmail me with advertising blackmail me with money go yourself but go yourself is that clear I hope it is hey Bob here in the audience well well let me ask you then that's how I feel don't advertise how do you think then about the economics of of x if if if if part of the underlying model at least today and maybe it needs to shift maybe the answer is it needs to shift away from advertising um if if you believe that this is the one part of your business where you will be beholden to those who uh have this view what you do FY I I I understand that but there's a reality too right yes no noan Lind Yaro is right here and she's got to sell advertising absolutely so um no no to totally so so no actually what what this advertising boyot is uh is is going to do it's going to kill the company and do you think that the I but and the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail detail but there are those advertisers I imagine are going to say they're going to say we didn't kill the company oh yeah they're going to say tell to tell to Earth but they're going to say that they're going to say Elon that you killed the company because you said these things and that they were inappropriate things and they didn't feel comfortable on the platform right that's that's what they're going to say and let's see how Earth responds to that so okay this then this goes back to we we'll both make our cases right and we'll see what outcome is what are the economics of that for you I mean you you have enormous resources so you can actually keep this company going for a very long time would you keep it going for a long time if there was no advertising I mean if the company fails because of an ad advertised boycott it will fail because of an advertised boycott and that will be what bankrupted the company and that's what all everybody on Earth will know what do you think then of the go back to the idea of trust though then it'll be gone and it'll be gone because of an advertised boycott but but you recognize that some of those people are going to say that they didn't feel comfortable on the platform and I I wonder I just wonder and ask you and think about that for a second tell it to the judge but the but the judge is going to be the judge is the public and you think that the public is going to say that that Disney is making a mistake yes and they're going to boycott Disney they already are well there there are some that are for for for lots of different reasons but you think that this is going to that you have the this goes to actually the interesting of P of of power and leverage let the chips fall where they may let the chips fall where they may can I ask what why that is the approach and I ask it because you've been approach well you've been very particular about the I mean the approach to Tesla uh when you think about the engineering involved in that the approach to SpaceX the approach to um some of the stuff you're doing with with AI has been very specific right there's not a let let the chips fall where they may approach to those businesses I don't think no we focus on making the best products and and and Tesla has gotten to where it's gotten with no advertising at all I understand that Tesla currently sells two twice as much uh in terms of electric vehicles as the rest of electric car vehs in United States combined Tesla has done more to help the environment than uh all other companies combined would be fair to say yet therefore as a leader of the company I've done more for the environment than everyone any single human on earth how do you feel about that no how I feel about that yeah no I'm I'm asking you personally how you feel about that because this goes we were talking about power and influence and I'm saying I'm saying what what I care about is the the reality of goodness not the perception of it and what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good while doing evil them okay let me ask you this because I think part of this by the way there's some people who said look owning X to begin with has just created problems that you've created so many amazing things that are changing our world and and and I know you want to uh make X this fabulous Town Square free free speech platform but that unto itself that that has created such a distraction of all of these things this is the conversation we're having we're not focus or not talking at least yet and we will on Tesla you have cybertruck uh deliveries tomorrow and everything else that you're doing but it will be the biggest product launch of anything by far on Earth this year is is there any part of you though that just says you know what I just shouldn't have done this or maybe I should sell it or give it away or do something else w w with with the X piece of it yeah given GI given the propensity for some of the things that you do and say on that platform to create these these issues yeah of all the posts I I've done on the platform I think there might be 30,000 or something like that right once in a while I will say something foolish and I have and I would certainly put that comment um you said the actual truth uh among perhaps one of the most foolish if not the most foolish thing I've ever done on the platform um and I did do my best to clarify uh afterwards that uh you know I I certainly do not mean anything anti-semitic in that um the the nature of the criticism was simply that um the Jewish people have been persecuted for thousands of years there is a natural Affinity therefore uh for persecuted groups um this has led to the funding of organizations that uh essentially promote any persecuted group or any group with the perception of persecution this includes radical Islamic groups everyone here has seen the the massive demonstrations for Hamas in every major city in the west that should be jarring well a number of those organizations received funding from prominent people in the Jewish Community they didn't expect that to happen it it but but if you generically without condition sort of fund if you if you fund persecuted groups in general some of those persecuted groups unfortunately want your Annihilation and what I what I meant by that when I subsequently clarify it is is that it's unwise to to to find organizations that support groups that want your Annihilation is this coming across clearly at my my question to you though is I think logically this is makes a lot of sense is there any part of you I mean just tell me what happens though when once all this happens let's say you fund a group and that group supports a mass who wants you to die perhaps you should not fund them right but you but you do thank you you you do appreciate that when you wait into these very delicate Waters at these very delicate times yes that it can create a real I mean as it created headlines for the past two weeks and and economic impact what what go I'm just so curious what H in your brain when you see all this happening are you sitting there going oh my God I stepped in it I wish I didn't do that are you saying screw them I hate these people why are they after me but all of that yeah all of that I mean I mean look I I'm sorry for that that that tweet or post it was foolish of me of the 30,000 it might be literally the worst and dumbest to post that I've ever done um and I try to my best to clarify six ways of Sunday um but you know at least uh I think over time it will be obvious that in fact far from being uh anti-semitic I'm in fact philosemitic um and my all the evidence uh in my track record would support that let me ask you this though there are people who say crazy things on on X as you know um maybe you think they're crazy maybe they're not it the the the the the aspiration for X is to be the global Town Square now if you were to walk down to let's say Time Square right um do you occasionally hear people saying crazy things things yes but they're not but they don't have the megaphone right and that's that's the conundrum they can only say it to the 50 or 100 people that are that are sitting standing there in Time Square they don't have a mega I mean look the the joke I used to make about old Twitter was it was like giving everyone in the py a megaphone um so uh you know I'm I'm I'm aware that things can get promoted uh that are negative beyond the sort of Circle of of somebody simply screaming crazy things into Time Square which happens all the time um you know so so the it's it's actually it's pretty rare for something um frankly that is uh hateful to be promoted it's not it's not it's not that it never happens um but it's it's fairly rare um I mean I would encourage people to look at for those that use the system when you look at the the sort of the feed that you receive how how often is it is it hateful and over time has it gotten more or less hateful and I would say that if you look at uh the X platform today versus a year ago I think it is actually much better I mean what is your personal experience are you surprised I'm just curious you use this I use the platform uh religiously I I ad to being an addict and I Ed the for you and I will I will say now the the problem is because I'm a journalist I go looking for stuff well that's I'm just saying and and and because I and and I I also think the algorithm for me personally because I'm looking for stuff also is feeding me other things well this this this is actually a challenge in that like sometimes people will say like why is it showing me you know post from this person that I hate and then we were like well did you interact a lot with this person that you hate well yes well therefore thinks that you want to interact more with this person that you hate that's like a reasonable let me ask this you kind of want to have an argument when you tweet yeah do you ever or post let's say post when you post I listen I'm open if anyone can come up with a better word uh that would be great when you post though but uh the least bad word I can think of as post it's when you post though do you are you trying to rile up either a base or an audience do you do you do you recognize the power you have in that and and also by the way not just rile up rile up one vers of side of it but also rile down which is to say as I said there are people who are demonstrably anti-semitic on on the site who I I get Jew boy things and all sorts of things that come my way hey for a while they thought I was dsh so they would you know I'd get it too but but but no but the question is my is super do you ever think to yourself you know what I'm going to go online and I'm going to say these people I condemn these people that are on my site saying these things because I I said I have you say I've condemned and I but you ever go yeah I said I I literally I literally posted I condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms like that is a literal I believe literal post that I made um I mean I'm like listen if I can get out the thesaurus if you you know and we could you know let me ask you a different question you you you you compose it I'll post it okay let me ask you this um you um you were on a you were on a podcast uh about a month ago and you said something that struck me um and it struck me as accurate came out of your mouth so hopefully it is but it I'm hoping we go deep on this just because it came out of my mouth does not mean it's true but you said you said my you said my mind is a storm I don't think most people would want to be me they may think they want to be me but they don't know they don't understand what did you mean by that what was what your mind being a storm and I I think it I mean I have known you for quite quite some time I think it is a bit of a storm yes um yeah I mean I I as much as a a weather metaphor makes sense um my mind is often feels like a like a like a very Wild Storm um I mean I have I have a fountain of ideas I mean I have more ideas than I can possibly execute um so I have no shortage of ideas Innovation is not the not the problem execution is the problem I've got a million ideas I mean I've got an entire designed for an electric supersonic vertical takeoff jet but I I mean I just if I I just can't do that as well I've had that for 10 years um um I there a million things um is your storm a Happy Storm no it's not a Happy Storm no tell us about that cuz I I think that that actually when people try to really understand you I think that there's a lot of this comes from some other place and I I want to talk about that what do you think that is we need like a psychiatrist couch here or something um I you know I I think to some degree I was born this way but and then I was Amplified by a difficult childhood frankly um so uh but I can remember even in happy moments when as a kid that there's just it just feels like there's just a a rage of forces in my mind constantly um now this you know productively manifests itself [Music] in technology and Building Things uh for the most part so and and I think on balance the output has been very productive um I think the results as we you know discussed earlier with SpaceX Tesla PayPal which is you know still going today um the uh first internet company that I started in fact the first internet company I started of two was um uh funded by New York Times company Hurst night rder and uh we wrote some of the software for the the New York Times website um and we helped bring online several hundred uh newspapers that previously were only in print um now this is in the 90s which at this point is like I'm like a grandpa PL basically um you know the 90s and internet feels like a pre-cambrian era when there were only sponges um so um anyway so you know I feel like a lot of productive things have been done and you can also look at Tesla as being s many companies in one like our supercharging network is if it were if if the Tesla supercharging Network were its own company it would be a Fortune 500 company by itself just just just the supercharging system um we also make the cells we we we build the power electronics and the power train from scratch um we have the most Innovative uh structural design the larest castings ever used um we have the best manufacturing technology at Tesla better manufacturing technology than companies that have been doing it for 100 years so so these these Demons of the mind you know are for the most part uh harnessed to productive ends um let me ask that doesn't mean that once in a while they you know go wrong but but and this is a question I think a lot of people you know are always trying to figure out about not just you but sometimes themselves meaning what is driving all this you're doing all of these things do you think it's it do you think that you would be as successful whatever success is if it wasn't being driven by some I think that there's something you're trying to prove either to yourself or to somebody I don't know we're all trying to prove s May I'm trying to prove it to my mother I don't know no if I were to describe my My Philosophy as a philosophy of curiosity um um I mean I I did have this existential crisis when I was uh around 12 uh about what's the meaning of life isn't it old pointless why not just commit suicide why exist um I read the religious texts um I read the philosophy books um that well especially the German philosophy books made me quite depressed frankly one should not read shophow n as a gager um but then I read uh Douglas Adams hit Guide to the Galaxy which is a book on philosophy in the form of humor and the point that Adams was making there was that uh we don't actually know what questions to ask um that's why he said that you know the answer is 42 like basically Earth's a giant computer and and it came up with the answer 42 but then to actually figure out what the question is that's the actual hard part um I think this is generally true also in physics at the point of which you can uh properly frame the question the answer is is actually the easy part um so so so when my motivation then was that well my life is finite really a flash in the pan in on a galactic time scale uh but if we can expand the scope and scale of Consciousness then we are better able to figure out what questions to ask about the answer that is the universe and maybe we can find out the meaning of life or even what question to what what the right question to ask is um you know where did we come from where are we going um where are the aliens are there aliens um and you know these these questions you know and is there new physics to discover uh or is this because there seem to be some real questions about dark matter and dark energy and um so the purpose of space sex is to extend life beyond Earth on a sustained basis so that we can at least pass one of the firmy great filters uh which is that of being a single planet civilization um if we are a single planet civilization then we are simply waiting around for some Extinction event whether that is man-made or uh natural um but if you're a single planet civilization eventually you will uh something will happen to that planet and you will die if you're a multiplet civilization you will live much longer also multiplet civilization is that's the natural stepping stone to being a multi- stellar civilization and being out there Among the Stars so now this I think has two this this is not simply a defensive uh motivation um but it is also one with that you know that gives meaning man search for meaning good ask let me finish this philosophy Point even though it may seem rather esoteric um it may resonate with a few people um we must get past this firmy filter of being a a this great filter of being a single planet civilization um and if we do that we are more likely to understand the nature of the universe and what questions to ask um if you're believer in the philosophy of curiosity then then I think you should support this ambition um and but but it's more there's being a multiplan species is more than than simply you know life in life insurance for Life collectively that's a defensive reason but but but I think also that that that life has to be more than simply solving one sad problem after another you know there have to be there have to be reasons where you wake up in the morning and you're happy to be be alive there have to be reasons that you you have to say why are you excited about the future like what gives you hope and and and if you if you if you aren't sure ask your kids and and and I think the idea of us being a space fairing civilization and being out there Among the Stars is incredibly inspiring um and exciting and something to look forward to and there need to be such things in the world let me ask you a different question about confidence we were having a conversation here earlier but people um and where your where people get their Confidence from some people have great insecurity other people uh have great confidence and I was thinking about you because you have a very interesting history where people have told you over and over again that you're wrong well sometimes they're right well sometimes they are but I would say that when it comes to Tesla when it came to SpaceX people told you that you were crazy you were out of your mind this was never going to happen this was never going to work and soas I ask you this though is now when people say you're wrong this isn't right do you look at that and say you know what that's like a red flag for me because you know I've been told so often that I'm wrong that I know that I and I know I'm right because I've had that experience or are there people in your life when they say you know what Elon this is not this is not right do you know what I'm saying um I mean I think what you trying to say is that uh do I at this point think because uh I've been right so many times when others have said I'm wrong that now I fast believe I'm right when in fact I'm wrong you do very well what do you think no I'm right um so uh yeah no look here's the thing um physics is UN unforgiving physics is unforgiving so uh I mean I have you know these various little sayings I've come up with uh that physics is the law and everything else is a recommendation right uh in the sense that uh you can break any law made by humans but try breaking a law made by physics that's much more difficult um so if you are wrong and persist in being wrong the Rockets will blow up and the cars will fail um so this is not we're not trying to figure out what what flavor of ice cream is the best flavor of ice cream like if there's a thousand things that can happen on a rocket flight and only one of them gets the rocket to orbit and and so being wrong results in Failure uh when dealing with physical uh objects but that's the interesting part so now you've built this these great companies that physically the physics of them are enormously successful so successful arguably that you have leverage over everybody else right there's nobody else can do starlink nobody else can get I nobody else can get the rockets in in space yet Amazon and Jeff basist are trying but they haven't yet I hope he does you hope he does yeah yeah um I mean I think you know I I actually agree with with with lot Jeff's motivations um I mean I think you know he's you know and I so I'm let me put put this way if if there was a button I could press that would delete uh blue Aron I wouldn't press it um so I think uh it's good that he's spending money on on um making Rockets too um you know I suggest perhaps you spend more time on it but uh you know it's up to him uh the the uh but I should make a point here so nothing nothing any of my companies have done has been to stifle competition in fact we've done the opposite so at Tesla we have open- sourced our patents anyone can use our patents for free how many companies do you know who've done that can you name one I can't um at SpaceX we don't use patents so I mean said once in a while we'll we'll file a patent just so some patent trol doesn't cause trouble but we're not stuffing any we've done we've done nothing anti-competitive we've done nothing to stop our comp at all I I I I just want to clarify for the audience because some companies have done done anti-competitive things I I think the strange thing or the unusual thing about SpaceX and Tesla is that we've done things that have helped our competition so at Tesla we um have made our supercharger system Open Access we we've we we we made our charger technology available for free to the other manufacturers the reason I no wall Garden we could have put a wall up but instead we invited them in the reason I mentioned this though is because you've had this success in the physical physics world you now have these very uh difficult decisions that have huge impacts on the world that are not physical decisions at all they're they're decisions of the Mind the decisions that you and others have to make and there's a question whether you should be making these decisions at all and I I think about it in the context of starlink uh obviously there was the report about uh how it's being used in Ukraine in the Russia War there's questions about what you know Taiwan whether Taiwan should use it or will use it I believe they're not right now because they're worried that some point maybe the Chinese will tell you that you have to they have leverage over you and you're going to have to turn that off right I mean these are these are very difficult decisions and I'm so curious how you think about that and not just the decisions the fact that you have that power I just I think it's important for the audience to understand that the reason I have these Powers is not because of some anti-competitive actions it's simply because we've executed very well oh I'm not dismissing that I think there are so many people by the way who are huge supporters of what you cre satellites out there you know but but they're but they're not as good as yours and the same and we can say that maybe make the same argument out of cars and everything else but as a result that gives you enormous leverage right with the exception of that by the way these advertisers who aren't on X in every other instance everybody needs you well I mean nobody's they use our product if it's better than use somebody else's product if it's their other product better and I accept that and maybe one day somebody else create better products it like you know how is it a bad thing to make better products than other companies well and I I want to go back to this to the starlink piece of it though because it that has sort of a Geo geopolitical ramification in terms of your power and how you think about that specific power and then uh the power that the US government might have either over you or Not Over You the power the Chinese government might have over you or not over you and how those things get used I mean what you suggesting I I'm I'm I'm asking the question around this this very idea of how these satellites are going to be used whether you think that you should have control of them whether the government should have control of them you trust the government well that's there's a lot of people who don't trust the government no exactly but then this goes back to the trust of you right I mean like you said we're not the only company who has communication satellites our satellites are just much better than their so it's not like we have a monopoly do do you feel like anybody product it's not like do you feel anybody has leverage over you I mean I think at the end of the day if we make bad products that people don't want to use then the users will vote with their resources and use something else let me pivot the conversation for a second I mean certainly I mean my company's overseen by regulators and and while um you know once since SpaceX starlink Tesla um are overseen by you know cumulatively over 100 Regulators uh and and actually more than that few hundred Regulators uh because you got we're in 55 countries um if if you sum up all the times that I had had an argument with Regulators of hundreds of regulators over decades it it can sound really terrible except but they forgot to mention that there were 10 million regulations we complied with and only five that I disagreed with but they L all the five and it sounds like wow this guy's a real Maverick I'm like yeah but what about the 10 million we complied with do you let me let me one one related thing on this and The Leverage of countries and things over you and Regulators um X is this free speech platform you do business in China lots of business in China that's an important part of your your business I imagine uh well lot facex how do you think about the leverage that the Chinese have over you and do they have leverage over you and how do you feel about some people would say is it hypocritical uh for you to be doing business in China or frankly in other countries as it relates to X and other things that don't follow this free speech path that uh you have espoused the best that the xplatform can do is adhere to the laws of Any Given country do you think there's something more we could do than that I think it would be very hard but I just wonder given it the sort of strong philosophical approach that you've you've you've you've been vocal about whether you say to yourself you know maybe I shouldn't be doing business in that country uh well first of all starlink and SpaceX do or no business in China whatsoever um Tesla has one of four factories four vehicle factories in China um and China is you know I don't know a quarter of our Market or something like that uh so it's a quarter of the market of one company um the same is true by the way of of all the other car companies uh they also have something on that order of quarter of their sales in China um so if you if that's a problem for Tesla it's a problem for every car company um I mean I think one has to be careful about not conflating uh the various companies because I can only do things that are within the bounds of the law I cannot do beyond that um my aspiration is to do as much good as possible and to be as productive as possible within the bounds of what is legal more than that I cannot do um I want to Pivot and talk about AI for a moment we had Jensen Wong here who's uh a big fan of yours as you know yeah jenson's awesome talk about talked about bringing you the first box by the way with Ilia uh interestingly enough yes back in 2016 I think there's a video of Jensen uh and me unpacking the first AI computer at open AI so I'm so curious what you think of what's just happened over the past two weeks while you were dealing with this other uh um headline series of headlines there was a whole other series of headlines so at open AI what did you think well you founded it co-founded it co-founded it yeah um well well the the whole Arc of open AI frankly is a little troubling because the the reason for starting open AI was to create a counter counterweight to uh Google Google and deep mind which at the time had 2third of all AI talent and basically infinite money and compute and there was no there was no counterweight it was unipolar world and Larry and Paige and I used to be very close friends and I would stay at his house and I would talk to Larry until late hours of the night about AI safety um and it became apparent to me that Larry did not care about AI safety um I think perhaps the thing that gave it away was when he called me a speciest uh for being pro Humanity um as in you know like a racist but po species um so I'm like wait a second uh what side are you on Larry um and then I'm like okay listen this guy's calling me a speciest he doesn't care about AI safety um we've got to have some Counterpoint here because this seems like we could be this is this this is no good so open AI was actually started and it was meant to be open source uh I named it uh open AI um after open source um it is in fact closed Source super it should be it should be name renamed super closed source for maximum profit AI um so because this is what it actually is I mean fate loves irony I mean in fact A friend of mine has this says like the way to predict outcomes is the most ironic outcome is the most it's like this aam Razer like the simplest sort of explanation is most likely and um my friend Jonah's view is that the most ironic outcome is the most likely and that's what happened with open AI um it's it's gone from an open source uh Foundation a 5123 to Suddenly It's like a 90 billion for-profit Corporation with closed source so I don't know how you go from here to there but that seems like a I don't know how you get I don't know if is this legal I'm like legal so but so as you saw Sam Alman get out Yeah by somebody you know Ilia and Elia was somebody was a friend of yours you brought him there uh your relationship with Larry Page effectively broke down over you recruiting him away I think that's correct that was the fight that was the Larry refused to be friends with me after I recruited Ilia and so here's Ilia apparently saying something is very wrong I think we should be concerned about this because I think Ilia actually has a strong moral compass um he thinks about he you know he he really sweats it over over questions of what is right um and if Ilia felt strongly enough to want to you know fire Sam well I think the world should know what was that reason have you talked to him I've reached out but he he doesn't want to talk to anyone have you talked to other people behind the scenes is this all happening I've talked to a lot of people as nobody I've not found anyone who Knows Why have have you I think we are all still trying to find out I mean look one of two things is is either it was a serious thing and we should know what it is or it was not a serious thing and and then the board should resign what do you think of Sam Alman I have mixed feelings about Sam I I do um you know the the ring of power you know can corrupt um and the ring of power so you know I don't know I think I want to know why Ilia felt so strongly as to fire Sam this sounds like a serious thing I I don't think it was trivial and I'm quite concerned that this that there's some you know dangerous element of AI that they've they've cre discovered yes you think they've discovered something that would be my guess where are you with your own AI efforts relative to where you think open AI is where you think Google is where you think the others are I mean on the AI front him in somewhat of a quandry here because um I've thought AI could be something that would change the world in a significant way since I was in college I mean like 30 years ago um now the reason I didn't go bu AI right from the GetGo was because I was uncertain about which which edge of the double- edged sword which would be sharper the good Edge or the bad Edge so I held off on doing anything on AI could have created I think leading AI company and kind of opening a actually kind of is that um because I was just uncertain if you make this magic Genie what will happen um you know whereas I think building sustainable energy technology is much more of a single-edged sword that is single-edged good making life multiplanetary I think single-edged good um you installing mostly single-edged good I mean giving people better connectivity to people that you know don't don't have connectivity or too expensive offensive I think is very you know very much a good thing um Sonic was instrumental by the way in halting the Russian Advance the ukrainians said so um so you know I think there but with AI you you've got the magic Genie problem um you may think you want a magic Genie that but once you that Genie's out of the bottle it's hard to say what happens how far are we away from that Genie being out of the bottle you think we think it's already out I mean the genie certainly poking his head out um but AGI the idea of artificial general intelligence given what you now are working on yourself and you know how easy or hard it is to train to create the inferences to create the weights I hope I'm not getting too far in the weeds of just how this works but those are the basics behind the software Square end of this it's funny you know all these weights uh they're just basically numbers in a comma separated value file and that's how digital God a CSP file found that funny um uh but that's kind of literally what it is so I I think it's coming pretty fast you know is that I mean uh you you you famously have admitted to overstating how quickly things will happen but how quickly do you think this will happen if you say smarter than the smartest human at anything yep it may not be then quite smarter than all humans all machine augmented humans you know because people got computers and stuff um there a higher bar but you say smaller than any you know can write as good a novel as say JK in or discover new physics or invent new technology um I would say that we are less than 3 years from that point um let me ask you a question about uh xai and what you're doing and um because there's an interesting thing that's different I think about what you have relative to some of others which is you have data you have information you have all of the stuff that everybody in here has put on the platform to sort through um and I don't know if everybody realized that initially what is the value of that yeah I mean data is very important um you could say data is probably more valuable than gold um but then maybe you have actually maybe you have more maybe you have the gold in X in a different way in a way again that I I that I don't know if the public appreciates what that means yes um X is the might be the single best source of data um I mean it is uh there are more you know people links that go to people click on more links to X than anything else on Earth sometimes people think Facebook or Instagram is a bigger thing but actually there are more links to X than anything you can this's public information you can Google it okay let me ask you a um so it it is it is uh where you would find what is happening right now on Earth at any given point in time the whole open ey drama played out in fact on the xplatform um so it is one of the it's not there you know Google certainly has a massive amount of data so does Microsoft um so it's not like but but it is one of the best sources of data um can I ask you an interesting IP issue which I think is actually something uh I can say as somebody who's in the Creator business and journalistic business and and whatnot uh where care about copyright so one of the things about training on data has been this idea that you're not going to train or or these things are not being trained on people's copyrighted information historically that's been the concept yeah that's a huge lie say that again that's these AI well these AI are all trained on copyrighted data obviously so you think it's a lie when when open AI says that this is not none of these guys say they're training on copyrighted data that's that's a lie it's a lie straight up a straight up lie okay 100% obviously it's been trained on proped data okay so let me ask a second question which is all of the people who have been uploading me like one every minute all of the people who have been uploading articles the best quotes from different articles uh videos 2x all all of that can be trained on and it's interesting because people put all of that there um and those quotes have historically been considered fair use right people are putting those quotes up there and individually on a fair use basis you'd say okay that makes sense but now there are people who do threads and by the way there may be multiple people who've done you know an article that has a thousand words technically all thousand words could have made it on to X somehow and effectively now you have this remarkable reposit and I wonder what you how you think about that again and how you think the creative community and those who were the original Ip owners should think about that I don't know except to say that by the time these lawsuits are decided we'll have digital God so as ask digital God at that point um these lawsuits won't be decided before on a time frame that is relevant um is that a good thing or a bad thing I think we live you know there's that I don't know if it's actually real Chinese saying or not but uh may you live in interesting times is apparently uh not a good thing um but I I I would prefer to personally I would prefer to live in interesting times um and and we live in the most interesting of times I think for a while I was like really getting demotivated and losing over the sort of the threat of AI danger and then I finally sort of became fatalistic about it and said well even if I knew it was Annihilation was certain uh would I choose to be alive at that time or not and I said I probably would have choose to be alive at that time because it's the most interesting thing um even if there was nothing I could do about it so then you know then basically sort of a fatalistic resignation helped me sleep at night because I was having trouble sleeping at night because of AI danger um now what to do about it I mean I've been the biggest the the one banging the drum the hardest by far the longest uh or at least one of the longest uh for AI danger and and these regulatory things that are happening the single biggest reason they're happening is because of me um you think they're ever going to get their arms around it we we talked to the vice president this afternoon she said she wants to regulate it people have been try to regulate social media for years and have done nothing effectively well there's there's regulation around anything which is a like a a physical danger to or a danger to the public so like cars are heavily regulated Communications are heavily regulated rockets and aircraft are heavily regulated um the the general philosophy about regulation is that when something is a danger to the public that there needs to be some uh government oversight um so I think in in my view AI is more dangerous than nuclear bombs and we regulate nuclear bombs you can't just go make your bomb in your backyard um I think we should have some kind of Regulation with AI now this tends to cause the AI accelerationists to get up in arms um because they think AI is sort of Heaven basically um but you typically don't like regulation you've pushed back on regulation for the most part in the world of Tesla and the so many so many instances where we read articles about you pushing back on The Regulators I'm so curious why in this instance now you own one of these businesses as I said a moment ago um uh you one should not take what is viewed in the media as being uh the whole picture um there are literally hundreds like this is not an exaggeration so there are probably a 100 million regulations that that my companies comply with and there are probably five that we don't and if there if we disagree with some of those regulations it's because we think the regulation that is meant to do good doesn't actually do good but that's an interes def regulations for the question if there are laws and rules whether the idea is that you're making the decision that the law and the rule shouldn't be the law and the rule and then right isn't no I'm saying you're fundamentally mistaken and and and you should be obvious that you're mistaken um my company's uh Automotive is heavily regulated uh we would not be allowed to put cars on the road if we did not comply with this vast body of Regulation now you could you could fill up this stage with literally you know six foot high with the the the regulations that you have to comply with to make a car would make you could have a room full of phone books that's how many that's how big the regulations are and if you don't comply with all of those you can't sell the car and if we don't comply with all the regulations for Rockets or for Starling they shut us down so in fact I am incredibly compliant with regulations now once in a while there'll be something that I disagree with the reason I would disagree with it is because I think the regulation in that particular case in that rare case does not serve the public good and therefore I think it is my obligation uh to object to a regulation that is meant to serve the public go to but doesn't that's the only time I object not because I seek to object in fact I'm incredibly rule following let me ask you a separate question a social media related question we've been talking about Tik Tok today um ahead of the election sure uh Tik Tok is what do you think of Tik Tock do you think it's a national security threat I don't use Tik talk um say that again you don't I don't personally use it U but for for people that for for teenagers and people in their 20s they seem almost religiously addicted to Tik Tok um some people will watch Tik Tok for like two hours a day um I stopped using Tik Tok when I felt the AI probing my mind and I don't it made me uncomfortable um so I stopped using it um and in terms of anti-Semitic content I mean Tik Tok is r with that it has has the most viral anti-semitic content by far but do you think the Chinese government is using it to manipulate the minds of Americans no is that something that you think we should worry about I mean you have you have different states that are trying to ban it I don't think this is some Chinese government plot um but it it it it is the the Tik Tok algorithm is entirely AI powered so it is really just trying to find the most viral thing possible it's it's what is going to keep you glued to the screen right that's it um now the on on sheer numbers um there are on the order of two billion Muslims in the world and I think uh you know much smaller number of Jewish people what 20 million something uh many orders magnitude F so if you just look at at content production just on sheer numbers basis is going to be overwhelmingly antisemitic let me ask let me ask you a political question um and I've been trying to square this one in my head for a long time yeah in the last two or three years you have moved decidedly to the right I think have I well we can discuss this I think that you have uh been espousing and promoting uh a number of of of Republican candidates and and others you've been very frustrated with the Biden Administration over I think unions and uh feeling uh like they did not respect what you've created well I mean without any doing nothing to provoke the vit Administration they held an electric vehicle Summit at the White House and specifically refused to let Tesla ATT this was in the first 6 months of the administration um and we inquired we're like we literally make more electric cars than everyone else combined why are we not allowed why are you only letting UA Ford GM Chrysler and UAW and you're specifically disallowing us from the EV Summit at the White House we we' done nothing to provoke them um then uh Biden went on to add insult injury um and publicly said that GM was leading the electric car Revolution this was in the same quarter that Tesla made 300,000 electric cars and GM made 26 does that seem fair to you so but but tell me this then it it doesn't seem fair um and and and I've asked repeatedly you've probably seen me and by way I had great relationship with Obama so there not a so but but but I voted for Obama I stood stood in hours for six I stood in line for six hours to shake Obama's head okay so but okay so let me just ask on a personal level this I can see it in your face this this hurt you personally and it hurt the company too and it was an insult to you know Tesla has 140,000 employees okay of the half of them are in the United States Tesla has created more manufacturing jobs than everyone else combined so let me ask this then you you've devoted at least the last close to 20 years of your life if not more to uh the climate climate change uh trying to get Tesla off the ground in part to improve climate you've talked about that uh yeah a real right-wing motive is repeatedly got far right if anything no I understand that and then so it's it's reverse psychology Next Level well no but so here's then the question which is how do you square the support that you have given uh I believe you were at a fundraiser uh for uh uh Viva gramas Swami for example who says that the climate uh climate issue is a hoax right I disagree with him on that I but I would think that that would be such a singular issue for you I would think that that the climate issue would be such a singular issue for you that actually it would disqualify almost anybody who who didn't take that issue seriously well I haven't endorsed anyone for for president I mean I wanted to hear what had to say um because I think some of his things are some of things he says I think are pretty solid um you know he's concerned about government overreach um about government control of information the I mean the degree to which uh old Twitter was basically a sock puppet of the government was ridiculous um so you know it seems to me that there there's a a very severe violation of the First Amendment um in terms of how much government control uh how much control the government had over old Twitter um and uh it no longer does so you know there's a reason for the First Amendment um reason for the First Amendment for freedom of speech is because the people that immigrated to this country uh came from a places where there was not freedom of speech and and they were like you know what we we we got to make sure that that's constitutional um because where they came from if they said something they'd be put in prison or there'd be you know something bad would happen to them so uh and freedom of speech you have to say when is it relevant it's only relevant when when someone someone you don't like can say something you don't like or it it has no meaning um and and as soon as you sort of you know throw in the towel and concede to censorship it is only a matter of time before someone censors you and that is why we have the First Amendment um could you see yourself voting for President Biden if if it's if it's a Biden Trump election for example I think I would not vote for Biden you'd vote for Trump I'm not saying I'd vote for Trump but I mean this is this is definitely a difficult Choice yeah you know we would you would you vote for Nikki Haley Nikki Haley by the way wants uh all social media um names to be exposed as you know no I think that's outrageous yeah no I'm not going to vote for some Pro sensor candidate like I said I mean I think these you have to you have to you know consider that there's a lot of wisdom uh in these amendments you know in the Constitution um and and uh you know a lot of these a lot of things that we take for granted here in the United States that don't even exist in Canada there's not no constitutional right to freedom of speech in Canada so you know and and there's no Miranda rights in Canada people like think like you know you have the right to ROM tent you don't actually in Canada um so you know I'm half Canadian I can say these things I um but you know so so like you just got you the freedom of speech is incredibly important um even when people and like like I it's it's actually especially important in fact it is only relevant when uh people you don't like can say things you don't like and do you think right now meing you think right now the Republican candidates or the Democrats are more inclined I mean this is where you go to I assume to to to woke and anti-woke and the mind Virus issue that you've talked about which party do you think is is is more Pro freedom of speech given all the things you've seen because we also see you know disantis uh you know preventing people from Reading certain things maybe you maybe you think that that's that's correct no uh look we actually are in an odd situation here where on balance uh the Democrats appear to be more Pro censorship than the Republicans me that used to be the opposite it used to be you know the left position was freedom of speech um you know uh I believe at one point um the ACLU even def defended the right of someone to claim that they were Nazi or something like that you know so like they were they really were uh like the left was freedom of speech is is is fundamental um and I mean my at least perception Perhaps it is in acccurate is that um the pro censorship is more on the left than than the right um we certainly get more complaints from the left than the right let me put it that way um so uh um but my aspiration for the xplatform is that it is the best source of Truth or the least inaccurate source of Truth um and well you know I don't know people believe me or not but I think Honesty is the best policy and I I think that the truth will win over time and the you know we've got this this great system and it's getting better called Community notes uh which is fantastic I think at correcting uh falsehoods uh or or adding context in fact we we make a point of of not removing anything but only adding context now that context could could include that this is completely false and here's why um and and and no one is immune to this I'm not immune to it advertisers are not immune to it in fact we've had Community notes which has caused us some loss in advertising speaking of loss in advertising Revenue um when if a community note if an if if there's false advertising the community note will say this is false and here is why I mean like there's one specific example that is public knowledge so I'll mention it which is at one point uh Uber had this ad uh which said own like a boss uh and it was Community noted if by boss you mean $12.47 an hour this this did cause at least a temporary suspension of advertising from uba I got to ask you a question that might make everybody in the room uncomfortable or not uncomfortable but it goes to the Free Speech issue uh the New York Times company and the New York Times newspaper it appeared over the summer uh to be throttled what what did the New York Times well we we do require that um that everyone has to buy a subscription and we don't make exceptions for anyone and and I think if I want the New York Times I have to pay for a subscription and they don't give me a free subscription so I'm not going to give them a free subscription but were you but were you throttling the New York times relative to other news organizations relative to everybody else was it was it was it specific to the to the times they didn't buy a subscription by the way only cost like $1,000 a month so if they just do that then then they they're back in back in the settle but but but you are saying that it was throttled no I'm saying I mean was there a conversation that you had with somebody you said look you know I'm unhappy with the times they should either be buying the subscription or I don't like their content or whatever whatever any organization that refuses to buy a subscription uh is is is not going to be recommended but then what does that say about free speech and what does that say about amplifying it costs a little bit right but that's but that's an interesting yeah know it's like it's like an uh South Park uh where they say you know Freedom isn't free at cost a buck5 or whatever um um so but it's pretty cheap okay it's low cost low cost freedom I got a couple more questions for you um you're headed back to Texas uh after this to launch uh the Cyber truck yeah it's going to be a big launch but I wanted to ask you right now uh more broadly just about the the car business and what you see actually happening um and specifically the government put in place lots of policies as you know to try to encourage uh more EVs and one of the things that's happened uniquely is you have now a lot of car companies saying actually this is too ambitious for us these plans are too ambitious 4,000 dealers I don't know if you saw it just yesterday sent a letter to the White House saying this has gone too far you're going too far you had this anti EV it was an it it was a this is going too fast too far and that there's not enough demand underneath all this is this idea that maybe there's not enough demand for e that the American public has not bought into the I mean they bought into with with with your company but they haven't bought into it broadly enough well I think if you make a compelling electric car people will buy it no question about it um I mean electric car sales in China are gigantic um that's by far the biggest category right um and I think that would be the ca you know um I mean it's worth noting okay so the probably the best reputation of that is that the Tesla Model y will be the bestselling car of any kind on Earth this year of any kind gasoline or otherwise is there another car company that you think is doing a good job with EVS I mean I think the Chinese car companies are extremely competitive um by far our toughest competition is in China so um I mean there's there's a lot of people who out there who think that the top 10 car companies is going to be Tesla followed by nine Chinese car companies um I think they might not be wrong so um China is super good at manufacturing and the work ethic is incredible so um you know like if we consider different leagues of competitiveness at Tesla we consider the Chinese League to be the most competitive um and by the way we do very well in China because our TR China team is the best China how worried are you that that the union unionization effort that just took place uh uh at well not I shouldn't say effort but the the the new the new wages and the like at GM and and Ford are that they're coming for you and they are coming for you what is that going to mean to you in your business well I I mean I I think it's generally not good to have an adversarial relationship uh between um people on the line you know one group at the company and another group in fact I mean I I disagree with the idea of unions but perhaps for a reason that is different than people may expect which is I I just don't like anything which creates kind of a Lords and peasants sort of thing and and I think the unions naturally try to create negativity in a company and and create a of sort of Lords and peasants uh situation there there are many people at Tesla who have come gone from working on the line to being in Senior Management there is no Lords and peasants everyone eats at the same table everyone parks in the same parking lot you know at GM there's a special elevator for only for senior Executives we have no such thing at Tesla um you know and the thing is that I actually know the people on the line because I worked on the line and I walked the line and I slept in the factory and I and I worked beside them so I'm no stranger to them um and there actually many times where I've said well can't we just hold a union boat but apparently a company is not allowed to hold a union vote so it has to be somehow called for but the union can't do it so I said well it just hold a vote and see what happens um the actual problem is is is the opposite it's not that people are trapped at Tesla building cars the the the the challenge is is how do we retain great people to do the hard work of folding cars when they have like six other opportunities that they can do that are easier that's the actual difficulty is is that building cars is hard work and and and there are much easier jobs and I just want to say that I'm incredibly appreciative of those who build cars and they know it um you know so there's there I don't know maybe there will be unionized if if I say like if Tesla gets unionized will be because we deserve it and we failed in some way um but we we certainly try hard to you know ensure the prosperity of everyone we give everyone stock options um we've we've made many people who were just working the line who didn't even know what stocks were we've made them millionaires um so we're going to run out of time final couple quick questions when do you have the time to tweet or to post how I I actually think about it all the time as I said I go the bathroom sometimes I use it all the time meaning if if we were to if we were to open up our phones and look at the screen time what does yours look like well about every 3 hours I uh make a trip to the laboratory that's the only time you do this seems like you're on there a lot um no I mean I there'll be like brief moments between meetings um I mean it's not obviously I I have like 17 jobs so you know and um no no I guess technically it's work at this point it is but but I'm thinking just in terms of your mind share I mean by the way there's a lot of people who should be working who are on who are on this technically posting on Twitter is or or X is is work it does count as work so that's you know there's that um uh but no I mean I I think I'm [Music] on well I I guess usually probably I'm on for longer than I think I am I know but do you think that's five hours a day if you look at the the screen time of like number hours per week it's know that's a scary number um it's probably I don't know it's a little over an hour a day or something like that just an hour a day if we really looked at this together do you have your phone with you yeah you want to look okay okay here we go you ready screen time General screen time sometimes this is a scary number but I know that's why I I thought uh oh I just got a new phone so I think this is not accurate because it says I'm it's one minute pretty sure it's more than that wait it's a over the week there we go yeah go go go to the week okay so it's it's still wrong it's it's more than four minutes I I just got a new phone so this is not accurate it literally says four minutes new phone Tim Cook said do that phone new new phone who does you know I should ask by the way because I just men Tim Cook do you feel like you're going to have to have a battle with him eventually is that is that the next fight I mean over the App Store the idea of making a oh phone what you mean like no over the App Store you ever make a phone Sam alman's apparently thinking about making a phone with Johnny I I mean I don't think there's a real need to make a phone uh I mean if there's a essential need to make a phone I'll make a phone but I got a lot of FR to fry so uh I mean I do think there's a there's there's a fundamental challenge that phone makers have at this point because you've got a basically a black rectangle um you know how do you make that better so do you want to do that what does that what does that look like in in in elon's head no that's literally yeah good good phrase uh in the head neuralink well there we go that we need touch that before it's over you know the best interface would be a neural interface directly to your brain um so that that would be a neural how far we do you think from that and how how excited or scary does that seem to be and we read these headlines obviously about monkeys who died as you know what should we think about that uh yeah actually the this is the you the USDA inspector who who came by neuralink facilities literally said in her entire career she has never seen a better Animal Care Facility it is we are the nicest to animals that you could possibly be even to the rats and mice even though they did the plague and everything um so uh it is it is like monkey Paradise um so uh the the the the thing that gets conflated is that there were some terminal monkeys where you know this is long this is actually several years ago where the monkeys were about to die and we're like okay we've got an experimental device it's the kind of thing which only put on a monkey that's about to die and then you know now the monkey died but it didn't die because of the new link it died because it was you know had a terminal case of cancer or something like that so uh neuralink has has never caused the death death of a monkey best I unless they're hiding something from me has never caused death of a monkey and in fact we've we've now had monkeys with neuralink implants for I two three years and they're doing great so um and we've even replaced the new L twice uh and it's and and we're getting ready to do the to do the first uh implants in hopefully in a few months um the the only implementations of neuralink I think are unequivocally good speaking of the double-edged sort I think these early implementations are single-edged swords um because the first implementations will be to enable people who are have lost the brain Body Connection uh to be able to operate a computer or a phone faster than someone who has hands that that work um so you can imagine if stepen Hawking could communicate faster than someone um who had full full body functionality how incredible that would be well that's what this device will do um and we should have proof of that in a human uh hopefully in a few months um it already works you know in monkeys and works quite well um with monkeys that can play video games just using just F thinking um so and the next application after um the the sort of those you know dealing with tetrolic and quad quadriplegics is going to be um Vision vision is the the next thing so it's like if somebody is like has um lost both eyes or the optic nerve has failed basically whether's they have no possibility of having sort of some ocular correction that that would be the next thing uh for neur link is a direct uh Vision interface and in fact then you could be like Jord Le Forge from Star Trek you could you could see in like any frequency actually you could see in radar if you want two final questions uh and then we're going to uh end this conversation which I think has taken everybody Inside the Mind of Elon Musk today not as well as linkow um it actually goes to self-driving cars and vision and everything else um and I asked this question of Pete Buddha judge uh Transportation secretary it's actually something you retweeted so I wanted to ask you the same question um there's a big question about autonomous vehicles and the safety of them but there's also a question about when it will be politically palatable in this country for people to die in cars that are controlled by computers which is say we have 35 40,000 deaths every year in this in this country yeah if you could bring that number down to 10,000 5,000 that might be a great thing but do we think that the country will accept the idea that 5,000 people that your family uh might have have have perished in a in a a vehicle as a result not of a human making a mistake but of a computer um yes well first of all humans are terrible drivers um so people text and drive they drink and drive they get into arguments they you know um you know they do all sorts of things in cars that they should not do um so it's actually remarkable that there are not more deaths than there are um what we'll find with computer driving is I think probably an order of magnitude reduction in deaths um I think now and the US has actually far fewer deaths per capita than the rest of the world if you go worldwide I think there's something close to a million deaths per year due to Automotive accidents um so I think computer driving will probably drop that by 90% or more it won't it won't be perfect but it'll be 10 times better and do you think that the public will will accept that do you think the government will accept that well at in large numbers the it will simply be so obviously true um that it it really cannot be denied and what do you think I know we've talked about the timeline before and I know people have criticized you uh for putting out timelines that may not uh have come true just yet but what do you think it really is and and by the way do you feel like do you ever say to yourself I shouldn't said that sure of course um wait I shouldn't have said that um so uh yeah I I me I'm optimistic about I mean I think I'm like naturally optimistic about time scales and if I was not naturally optimistic I wouldn't be doing the things that I'm doing um I mean I certainly would have S A Rocket company or electric car company if I didn't have some sort of pathological optimism frankly um so um as you pointed out many people said they would fail and in fact I actually I agreed with them I said yes it probably will fail and they're like H okay um but I I thought Spas 6 and Tesla had less than a 10% chance of success when we started them um so yeah anyway but but the self-driving thing is is I've been optimistic about it we certainly um made a lot of progress if anybody has tried the very has been using the sort of full sof driving beta the progress is you know every year has been substantial um it's really now at the point where in most places it'll take you from one place to another with no interventions um and the data is unequivocal that uh that supervised full self-driving is somewhere around four times safer maybe more than than just human driving by by themselves um so I'm I you know I I can certainly see it coming actually really do you think it's another five or 10 years I mean people no no no definitely not definitely not um and do you feel like investors have invested in something that that hasn't happened yet is that is that fair to them and that's the other question that people have about that well I mean I think the they've they've all with rare exception uh thought it wasn't happening so they were investing in despite thinking they were very clear that they don't don't think it's real so they don't saying oh we we just believe everything y says hook and sinker uh and but the thing is that I mean I would be a fair criticism of me to say that I am late but it isn't but I always love her in the end let me ask you a final question I took note of this it was November 11th and you took to Twitter and you wrote only two words you said amplify empathy right I was taking back by that given all the things that have been going on in the world um do you remember what you were thinking well I think it's quite literally amp I understand it but what was what was going on why why did you write that well I was encouraging people to amplify empathy literally I tend to be quite literal um but was there something that had happened that you had seen that you said to yourself I need to I want to say that I I think I was talking to some friends and we all agreed that we should try to amplify empathy and so I wrote amplify empathy um if you wanted an unvarnished look inside the mind of Elon Musk I think you just saw it look sometimes it's pretty simple you know Elon Musk thank you very very much for the conversation thank you appreciate it very very much thank you thank you so much here take that with you for a second may take a big I'm just going to say uh a thank you to everybody who stuck around uh for what has been a remarkable day uh we are so appreciative of everybody uh who has been with us uh for so many years coming back to this every year so thank you thank you thank you I hope you had a great day and I hope we have an opportunity to do this again Elon Musk everybody thank you
Relevant bits. Click the gray spoilers to reveal.
4:20 GFY
Elon Musk tells advertisers who are boycotting X to go fuck themselves. If you haven't watched this dozens of times --- you will.
7:05 Tesla sells without advertising
Tesla has gotten to where it has gotten with no advertising at all. Tesla sells twice as many EVs as all other American manufacturers combined. Tesla has done more to help the environment than all other companies combined. Elon cares about the reality of doing good not the perception of it. To those who want to look good while being evil --- fuck them.
8:25 Elon about Cybertruck
The Cybertruck will be the biggest product release by far of anything on Earth this year.
19:40 Tesla
Tesla is many companies in one. If the Tesla Supercharging Network were it's own company it would be a Fortune 500 company. We make cells, we build the power electronics and power train from scratch, we have the most innovative structural design and the largest castings ever used, we have the best manufacturing technology better than companies that have been doing it for a hundred years.
53:20 Tesla and regulations
Automotive is heavily regulated. You could fill a room with phone books of regulations and if you don't comply with all of those you can't sell the car. I'm incredibly compliant with regulations but once in awhile there will be something that I disagree with because it doesn't serve the public.
57:00 Tesla, Biden, General Motors
Doing nothing to provoke the Biden administration they held an EV Summit and specifically prevented Tesla from attending. Tesla has done more for EVs why are Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and the UAW invited but not Tesla? Then Biden proclaimed Mary Barra led the EV revolution in a quarter where Tesla made 300k cars and GM made 26.
1:07:30 Cybertruck, car business
>! The government put in place policies to help manufacturers make EVs and now companies are saying it's going too fast too far and there is not enough demand. Elon points out if you make a compelling car people will buy it and that in China EV sales are by far the biggest category.!<
1:08:40 Tesla Model Y, competitors
The Tesla Model Y will be the best selling car of any kind on Earth this year. Of any kind including gasoline powered. The Chinese car companies are the most competitive. People think it will be Tesla followed by 9 other Chinese car companies. They might not be wrong - China is super-good at manufacturing and their work-ethic is incredible.
1:09:40 Unions & Tesla
It's not good to have an adversarial relationship between two groups at a company. Unions create negativity at a company and a "lords and peasants" mentality. There are many people who have gone from working on the line into senior management. . They eat at the same table and park in the same parking lot.
1:10:45 Elon calls out General Motors
GM has an elevator only for senior executives.
1:11:20 Tesla & unions
Many times Elon has asked if the could just hold a union vote but apparently a company is not allowed to hold the vote (OP here: because they're corrupt pieces of shit that want to rig the vote). If Tesla gets unionized it's because we deserve it and failed in some way.
1:19:10 Self driving cars
Humans are terrible drivers. They text and drive, they drink and drive, they get into arguments, all sorts of things - we will see an order of magnitude reduction in deaths. In large numbers it will be so obviously true it cannot be denied.
1:23:00 Self driving is already safer
FSD-Beta will usually take you from one place to another with no intervention. Supervised FSD is around 4x safer maybe more than a human driving alone.
am I crazy or does he seem like he’s on some drugs here? And I’m not anti drugs.