Elon Musk at VivaTech: is the “star” of tech off the mark?

Elon Musk caused a sensation at VivaTech on Friday, not without mentioning the activities and the future of his companies, including Twitter, Tesla, SpaceX, not to mention a strong opinion on artificial intelligence.

Entering on a few dance steps and an atmosphere worthy of the great hours of Apple keynotes, boots on his feet, Elon Musk caused a stir on Friday afternoon on the stage of the Dôme de Paris (the Palais des Sports) at VivaTech. In addition to the exceptional aspect of the event, which will have left hundreds of people on the floor, having nevertheless queued in the morning under the Parisian fire, Clubic, which was able to attend this conference in a good place, coldly dissected some of the statements of the man who has once again become the richest in the world. Selected pieces.

Twitter: ” it was expensive », and refusal of censorship

Elon Musk bought Twitter last year for a whopping $44 billion. ” It was expensive “, laughed the billionaire when he was launched on the subject by Maurice Lévy, the big boss of Publicis, organizer of VivaTech. ” If I’m so smart, why did I pay so much for Twitter? “, he launched to the crowd, with guaranteed effect.

Later in the conference, the businessman was questioned about the moderation of content and the interest of stronger regulation, which he clearly does not want, citing the fact ” that there are already a lot of regulations “. Mr. Musk says Twitter removed 90% of spam and bots, and 95% of porn and child pornography.

In addition, he added that he wanted to buy Twitter because he believed that the social network had a ” negative influence on civil society, and anything that harms civilization is bad. We had to change course, and make sure that Twitter is a positive force “, provoking the applause of a visibly conquered public.

Making the link between the present and the future, the boss of Twitter said he was confident about the future of the platform, citing a growth in the number of users ” week by week and confirming a return from advertisers. Faced with Christel Heydemann, the boss of Orange, he recalled his wish to preserve freedom of expression: “ if only we can say disturbing things, because otherwise there is no point in promoting freedom of expression. The reverse? It’s called censorship “.

Tesla: a success story that Musk did not suspect

EV1 was the first electric car created by General Motors and marketed at the end of 1996. I thought this was just the beginning and there would be more series but for reasons I don’t understand GM has recalled all of their cars “, recalls Elon Musk, “ flabbergasted by this situation at the time.

The entrepreneur also confided that he had initially estimated at ” 10% “only Tesla and Space X’s chances of success.” When we launched Tesla, there was no company in this sector, no start-ups to work on this electric vehicle technology “. He also did not expect such a stock market valuation from Tesla either.

SpaceX: an assumed space conquest

Regarding Space X, Elon Musk recalled his desire to create a “multi-planetary” life, in other words to have a life beyond our planet. On this subject, he rather had an interesting, almost spiritual reflection. ” I believe that we are the only sentient beings in this galaxy, which suggests that this light of consciousness represents a small candle in a fairly vast darkness, and that we must do everything to avoid extinguishing it. We must act to keep our planet healthy, and try life elsewhere. »

Elon Musk also mentioned the negotiations carried out with Russia in 2001 to buy back two of their largest missiles, with his desire to improve the methods used to lower the costs of the rockets. A project that is slowly but surely becoming a possible reality.

AI, OpenAI and regulation: Elon Musk clarifies his remarks

” I think we should interrupt the events “says Elon Musk about AI, he who was one of the co-founders of OpenAI, who has become a benchmark player in generative artificial intelligence, with his GPT model. ” There is danger with super intelligence, with potential terrible consequences “, he adds, calling once again for regulation of AI, “ what i believe in “. And Musk to finish, because AI is a risk, it needs an arbiter: regulators “. The message got through.

Between Starlink, Neuralink and sound bites

Asked about the conflict in Ukraine, Elon Musk spoke of a ” very complex situation “, specifying that Starlink and its antennas have played a crucial role in the country, having become today ” the backbone of the Ukrainian communication system “.

On the Neuralink chips, intended to be implanted in human patients to treat certain pathologies and which have recently received authorization from the American authorities, Elon Musk spoke of a slow and gradual deployment. ” This year, we will carry out our first implantation on a tetraplegic person “.