Elon Musk

Somehow, even after the Cybertruck launched, we still don’t know how many wipers it has. But we do know a lot more about it, including how to open the door! We also kinda sorta got some closure on the OpenAI drama, but as always the CEOs are still out here saying some wild stuff on stage and on the internet. Thank goodness we have a podcast where we get to loudly ask the digital gods: why?

As Elon Musk hands off the first production Cybertrucks to owners, he’s had to show almost every single one of them how to open the passenger door. “You just press this button over here,” he keeps saying, pointing to a spot that I think is on the B-pillar, just at the back of the door.

Tesla: lots of interesting ideas about cars, way more weird ideas about how to open them.

On Wednesday, X owner, executive chair, and chief technical officer Elon Musk used his interview at the DealBook Summit 2023 event to antagonize advertisers (singling out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was present) that paused doing business with the company, as well as clarifying his previous statements in ways that probably made them worse.

Now the company’s CEO Linda Yaccarino has chimed in with... this in a post on X:

Today @elonmusk gave a wide ranging and candid interview at @dealbook 2023. He also offered an apology, an explanation and an explicit point of view about our position. X is enabling an information independence that’s uncomfortable for some people. We’re a platform that allows people to make their own decisions. And here’s my perspective when it comes to advertising: X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you. To our partners who believe in our meaningful work — Thank You.

Musk’s portion has ended, the phones came out for pictures, and DealBook has come to a close. Thanks for tuning in.

We’re nearing the end of this interview, but Sorkin hasn’t yet asked Musk about X’s lawsuit against Media Matters, which reported that ads were appearing next to Nazi content.

“I’ve got a lot of fish to fry,” he said.

“I think there’s a fundamental challenge that phone makers have at this point,” Musk said, “because you’ve got basically a black rectangle, how do you make that better?”

This came right in the middle of a discussion around “free speech” on X. Over the summer, Times links on X took longer to load — Musk didn’t directly answer Sorkin’s question on whether he made a choice to punish the Times.

His response: “Free speech is not exactly free. It costs a little bit.” He referenced the Times not being a paying X user.

Sorkin is interjecting and pushing back less, the discussion is meandering, and we’re about 30 minutes over schedule. I’ve lost count of the number of times Sorkin has said, “let me ask you a different question” in order to pivot to something else.

“It should be renamed Super Closed Source for Maximum Profit AI. This is what it actually is,” he said. Musk co-founded it as a nonprofit and says its name is meant to reference open source. “I don’t know how you go from here to there, but that seems ... is this legal?”

Once again, we’re finding that definition matters when talking about AI intelligence. But if you’re talking about AI that can “write as good a novel as J.K. Rowling or discover new physics or invent new technology, I would say we’re less than three years from that point,” Musk says.

Musk says he hasn’t found anyone who knows why Sam Altman was ousted (and eventually brought back) — but believes a recent AI breakthrough could have caused the power struggle. A recent report suggested that OpenAI may have made progress towards AGI.

The DealBook stage sits in front of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Manhattan. The balloon letters are floating in and out of view behind the background screen outside. It’s unclear who’s behind them.

At the DealBook event, Musk tried to clarify his comments on Jewish activist groups, but I’m not sure it came across quite as he hoped — still casting blame on Jewish activists and other persecuted groups with broad and generalized accusations.

He said there are activist groups across the US who are supporting Hamas, and “a number of those organizations received funding from people in the Jewish community.” He said the problem was that they supported “persecuted groups in general” and that some of those groups “unfortunately want your annihilation.”

“Perhaps you should not fund them,” he said.

In a strange turn, we’re now watching Sorkin and Musk talk about the interior “storm” in Musk’s mind.

“Is it a happy storm?” No, says Musk. I’m not sure how we got here.

Musk says the advertiser boycott could be X’s downfall. He seems somewhere between resigned and mad.

“That will be what bankrupts the company and that is what everybody on Earth will know,” Musk said.

He gave a shoutout to Bob Iger during his “go fuck yourself” bit.

Here’s Musk responding onstage at DealBook:

I should in retrospect not have replied to that one person and should have written in greater length what i meant. But those clarifications were ignored by the media and essentially I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and arguably to those who are antisemitic. And for that I’m quite sorry, that was not my intention.

He later called it, “One of the most foolish — if not the most foolish — thing I’ve done on the platform.”

Of course, when it comes to how Musk feels about the advertiser boycott in response, he isn’t so willing to acknowledge his role in the matter.

That’s Musk’s on-stage message to advertisers who he says are “blackmailing” him — i.e. the companies like Disney, Apple, IBM, and many more that are pulling ads from the platform after his antisemitic posts.

“[The trip to Israel] wasn’t in response to that at all,” Musk says of his post — it wasn’t an “apology tour.”

“I have no problem being hated.”

Musk tells Sorkin the only reason he’s here is because he’s a friend. Musk keeps laughing. The vibe is chaotic.

Andrew Ross Sorkin is talking about how long Musk has been building his businesses. “It’s not been boring, that’s for sure,” Musk said. “Actually, technically, I do have a Boring Company.”

Follow along at our Storystream:

The room here at DealBook is packed for the last session of the day — and perhaps the most anticipated one. Nobody has come up in more sessions throughout the day than Musk. X CEO Linda Yaccarino is here, too.

Hilton’s entertainment company has pulled an advertising campaign from Elon Musk’s X over concerns about antisemitism and pro-Nazi content on the site previously known as Twitter, but the NFL is sticking around because its “fans are clearly there.” Guess we know who has more integrity.

Legal blogger and podcaster Ken White has some thoughts on Elon Musk’s yet-unfulfilled promise of a “thermonuclear” lawsuit against Media Matters (for simply noting that X’s loose moderation policy lets through heinous content) and the larger pattern of insisting “freedom of speech” means “freedom from criticism”:

It would be easy to blame this contemptible nonsense on Elon Musk being socially inept, proudly ignorant, and grotesquely petulant. But when it comes to thinking that the right to free speech includes the right to silence others, Elon learned it by watching us, okay? He learned it by watching us.

Musk threatened to file that lawsuit “the split second court opens” today... a delay White also points out is completely unnecessary, because e-filing exists.

Whatever you think of its windshield wiper, if you are one of the first Cybertruck owners (price still TBA), Tesla intends for you to hang onto your electric truck.

Tesla’s order agreement says “You agree that, you will not sell or otherwise attempt to sell the Vehicle within the first year following your Vehicle’s delivery date,” without getting permission. Breaking the deal could result in your truck being remotely deactivated.

The FAA still hasn’t cleared SpaceX to attempt another Starship orbital launch from its Boca Chica, TX, site after the first one caused significant damage to the pad and surrounding environment. SpaceX’s website and this teaser trailer indicate it’s ready to try again as soon as November 17th.

Those are also popping up on the same day as a report from Reuters documenting 600 injuries to SpaceX workers since 2014.

The records included reports of more than 100 workers suffering cuts or lacerations, 29 with broken bones or dislocations, 17 whose hands or fingers were “crushed,” and nine with head injuries, including one skull fracture, four concussions and one traumatic brain injury.

Musk himself at times appeared cavalier about safety on visits to SpaceX sites: Four employees said he sometimes played with a novelty flamethrower and discouraged workers from wearing safety yellow because he dislikes bright colors.

From Kara Swisher’s interview with Ben Mezrich, author of Breaking Twitter: 

In the book, there’s a scene when Musk signs the papers to take over Twitter, the first thing he screams out is, “Fuck Zuck! Fuck Zuck!” — which I haven’t seen reported anywhere else.

Not reported, but easily imagined.

He says users will need a $16-a-month X Premium Plus subscription to access "Grok," and that it will get real-time information from posts on X.

Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI but left in 2018 over the company’s for-profit shift, and has called ChatGPT “WokeGPT.” He launched xAI earlier this year. Musk’s posts come a few days ahead of OpenAI’s first developer conference on Monday.

A heavily caveated somewhere — but this is the first real update since xAI formally launched in July.

Elon Musk says the change is meant to “maximize the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism.”

A study earlier this month found X Premium verified users were getting heavy engagement as “superspreaders of misinformation” about the Israel-Hamas war.

This was his advice to employees during his first companywide meeting since renaming Twitter to X: “In any given meeting, make sure there is at least one piece of bad news. You can have more than one piece of bad news. If you’re in a meeting with me, always bring up at least one bit of bad news or more than that.”

I have more from inside X’s first big all hands with Musk and Linda Yaccarino in this week’s Command Line: