- Elon Musk did not have a lot to say concerning the Cybertruck throughout an interview the day earlier than its launch.
- He did have phrases about just about all the pieces else, together with telling advertisers who fled X to “Go f— yourself.”
- This is a have a look at Musk’s 90-minute interview that was at instances confrontational, considerate, and weird.
Tesla has its greatest product launch in 4 years on Thursday — the Cybertruck supply occasion — and also you’d by no means guess that in case you listened to Elon Musk’s hour-and-a-half-long interview on the DealBook Summit on Wednesday night.
The interview, which was at instances philosophical, confrontational, and political, barely touched on the brand new car.
Musk has beforehand known as Cybertruck Tesla’s “best product ever,” and hundreds of thousands of followers have been ready for the launch since 2019.
“It will be the biggest product launch of anything by far on Earth this year,” the billionaire advised the convention’s host, journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. (Musk has beforehand tried to mood expectations, and a Tesla exec mentioned the corporate will solely launch 10 Cybertrucks on the supply occasion on Thursday.)
That was roughly it for his ideas on the electrical pickup truck — although he had lots to say on all the pieces else.
Musk’s panel began almost quarter-hour late, leaving the viewers — together with the likes of hedge fund titan Invoice Ackman and X CEO Linda Yaccarino — ready.
Even earlier than he arrived, he was a subject of dialog, looming over the summit, which featured Vice President Kamala Harris, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon as company.
“I’m not here to talk about people,” Harris quipped when Sorkin talked about Musk.
“He’s obviously a brilliant human being and making unbelievable contributions to mankind. But he, you know, comes with pluses and minuses,” Dimon responded when Sorkin requested his ideas.
When the person of the hour did arrive, the temper on stage shortly turned tense.
Sorkin — whom Musk known as each “a friend” and the misnomer “Jonathan” in the identical sentence — introduced up X’s current advertiser exodus, which adopted Musk’s publish that appeared to endorse antisemitism on X.
Musk instantly acquired confrontational and hot-headed — a model of the billionaire that’s all too acquainted to the readers of his current biography.
“Go f— yourself,” he mentioned to the advertisers, together with Disney, IBM, and Apple, who’ve fled the platform, including that he didn’t care if the advertisers withheld their {dollars} and “killed” the corporate he purchased for $44 billion just one yr in the past.
“Is that clear?” Musk requested. “I hope it is. Hey, Bob,” he added, singling out Disney CEO Iger, who had been requested about pulling promoting from X earlier within the day.
Musk later apologized for his tweet, calling it “foolish,” however he by no means backtracked on his emotions towards advertisers — nor did he ask for forgiveness to Yaccarino, who has to wash up the mess.
However after greater than 20 minutes of defensive posturing, his temper shifted when Sorkin introduced up Musk beforehand calling his thoughts “a storm.”
Considerate and somber, the 52-year-old paused earlier than pointing to his “difficult childhood” and a lifelong battle to search out happiness.
“I did have this existential crisis when I was around 12 about: ‘What’s the meaning of life? Isn’t it all pointless? Why not just commit suicide? Why exist?'” mentioned Musk, who has beforehand commented on the tenuous relationship he has together with his father, Errol Musk, and being the sufferer of bullying.
The introspection made manner for a dialogue concerning the foundations of his philosophy — “one should not read Nietzsche as a teenager” — earlier than he turned to a few his biggest hits, like extending life past Earth, determining the that means of the universe, and opining concerning the risks of know-how.
A type of applied sciences is synthetic intelligence, about which Musk, a cofounder of OpenAI, has beforehand expressed fear. Whereas Musk mentioned he would not know why Sam Altman was ousted as CEO of the agency, he is “concerned” that the corporate found “some dangerous element of AI.”
“I have mixed feelings about Sam. The ring of power can corrupt,” mentioned Musk — who had prevented questions on his personal accumulation of energy simply minutes earlier than.
The CEO and richest man on the earth ended the speak with some politics — he is nonetheless bitter about not being invited to the White Home for the electrical car summit and is towards unions — and a sidebar about how Neuralink, his mad-scientist mind chip firm that has confronted criticism from an animal rights group, has constructed a “monkey paradise.”
Elon the fighter, thinker, and questionable good friend might have confirmed up on stage Wednesday. However Elon the Cybertruck hypeman appears to have been MIA. Perhaps that’s what X is for.