Elon Musk talks about AI, robots, and the X platform at the Cannes

The tech tycoon Elon Musk talked about artificial intelligence, robots, and his social media platform X at the Cannes Lions Conference 2024. Musk said he wants Tesla’s robot to be considered a friend in an interview covering various topics.

Also read: Elon Musk’s Tesla adds Dogecoin as a payment method

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk traveled to France to attend the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. He sat on stage for an interview with Mark Read, CEO of WPP, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. Musk once more promoted Tesla’s Optimus robot, saying it will be capable of performing a range of different tasks. He said it would be a personal assistant.

Critics are looking at parts of the interview as an effort by Musk to woo advertisers back to platform X, which he previously lashed last year with some harsh comments. Read started off by asking Musk what he meant by telling advertisers last year to “go f— yourself.”

The interview starts with arguments about advertising

Musk argued that it was about free speech rather than specifically about advertisers. Musk said, “It wasn’t to advertisers as a whole.” He argued it was about freedom of speech and that having a global free speech platform is important. Musk said that people from various perspectives can voice their views this way. Musk said,

“In some cases, there were advertisers who were insisting on censorship.”

Musk also said that if he had to choose between “censorship and money” or “free speech and losing money,” he would choose the second option. He told Read that some advertisers wanted to limit free speech, but X will always choose to make less money rather than limit free speech.

X social network relies on revenues from ads. In November last year, after Musk’s remarks, some major advertisers, including Disney, Apple, Sony, and IBM, pulled back from X. Musk said he was worried about the situation, which may doom the company. “We’re going to support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money, which I think is the right moral decision,” said Musk.

Elon Musk considers Optimus robot as Tesla’s most valuable asset

Musk also talked about Tesla’s plans for its humanoid robot. He noted that the company is not planning to make the robot look like a person but “good-looking,” he said jokingly. The billionaire said he wants people to consider the Tesla Optimus robot a friend.

“I think people will start to regard their personal Optimus robot as sort of a friend.”

The Tesla CEO previously touted Optimus as the company’s most valuable asset during Tesla’s earnings call. Musk pointed to Optimus’s business potential, saying that it can expand the economy with its ability to interact with the real world and perform tasks on request.

"Optimus will be more valuable than everything else combined. Tesla's A.I. Inference efficiency is vastly better than any other company. There's no company even close to the efficiency of Tesla."

一 Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/JsTdvmMNTJ— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) May 5, 2024

Musk said Optimus would be a helpful household assistant. Users can ask it to walk the dog, babysit kids, take care of the house, cook, or play piano as its generalized humanoid robot. While Musk is optimistic about Optimus beginning shipping next year, he still has not given any specific date. 

Musk believes everyone will have their own personal robot, and many will work across different industries. He also proposes that robots have the potential to surpass humans in number in the future.

Musk agrees with Geoff Hinton

The tech billionaire forecasted a 10 to 20 percent chance of an existential crisis from AI but insisted on focusing on the brighter side of technology. Mus reiterated his point by saying that he agree with Geoff Hinton (one of the so-called god father of AI) that there is a 10 to 20 percent chance of “something terrible happening.”

Also read: Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6B to rival Google, OpenAI

Nevertheless, Musk also said that the potential benefits are more than the risks associated with the technology. He again pointed to the heavenly scenario where there will be no shortage for anyone. He argues it will be a universal hike. Speaking of work, he said that it would be an optional choice.

Despite all the optimism about AI, Musk said there will be a substantial crisis for humanity. He said,

“If AI can do everything you can do but better, what’s the point of doing things? I think there will be an existential crisis.”

In his conversation with Mark, Musk told the audience it was the most interesting time in history and recommended everyone to “enjoy the ride.” When asked if he would like to live through times of AI’s destruction, Musk replied thoughtfully, saying, “Probably, yes.”

Cryptopolitan reporting by Aamir Sheikh