Elon Musk spent 30 minutes talking about space exploration, declining birth rates, free speech and artificial intelligence in space, during a highly anticipated appearance at the 27th conference annual Milken Global.
Basically, everything except Tesla (TSLA).
Not once did the tech billionaire mention his famous electric vehicle maker, or X, formerly known as Twitter, or the controversy surrounding them.
Instead, during a Q&A with conference founder Michael Milken, Musk said: “If you’re going to die somewhere, you might as well be on Mars, I’d like to explore a little bit before I die . »
Musk specifically brought up – twice – California’s $11 billion high-speed rail project, while discussing laws and regulations.
“At this point, California has made almost everything illegal,” Musk said. “Historically, what dispersed the cobwebs of regulation was war. I would rather not have a war.
Instead, he suggested a “waste collection process” for rules and regulations, without further explanation.
Attendees began lining up two hours before the event, with the line stretching the length of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Still, some began to leave amid the meandering conversation.
While most of the audience were financial executives, there were a few celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Seacrest.
In recent weeks, Tesla has been mired by a series of high-profile executive departures.
But instead of addressing Tesla’s recent woes, audience members were left with broad futuristic statements from Musk.
At one point, Milken read a question from the audience asking whether AI was accelerating Musk’s efforts in space.
“Oddly enough, one of the areas where AI is almost not used is space exploration,” Musk said, adding that his company SpaceX and its satellite business, Starlink, use no AI. “I’m not against it, we just didn’t see the point.”
Musk also said he has been thinking about AI safety for a long time. “I think we want to have truth-seeking AI as much as possible, that’s very important. AI must not be taught to lie, nor to say things that are not true,” he said.
Musk ended his conversation by discussing what keeps him up at night: threats of the end of civilization. And then he quickly left the stage without answering any impromptu questions.
Yasmin Khorram is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow Yasmin on Twitter/X @YasminKhorram and on LinkedIn. Send newsworthy tips to Yasmin: [email protected]
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