Elon Musk talks Mars, AI, and threats to civilization — but not a word of Tesla
Elon Musk spent 30 minutes expounding on space exploration, declining birth rates, free speech, and artificial intelligence in space at a much-anticipated appearance at the 27th annual Milken Global Conference.
Basically, everything except for Tesla (TSLA).
Not once did the tech billionaire mention his famed EV maker, or X, formerly known as Twitter, or the controversy surrounding them.
Instead, during a Q&A session with conference founder Michael Milken, Musk declared: “If you’re going to die somewhere, it may as well be Mars. I’d like to explore for a bit before dying.”
While discussing laws and regulations, Musk specifically called out — twice — an $11 billion California high-speed rail project.
“At this point, California has made almost everything illegal,” Musk said. “Historically, what has cleared away the cobwebs of regulation has been war. I would prefer not to have a war.”
He instead suggested a “garbage collection process” for rules and regulations, without any further explanation.
Attendees began lining up two hours before the event, with the line stretching the entire length of the Beverly Hilton hotel. Yet some started to leave halfway through the meandering chat.
While most of those in the audience were leaders in the financial world, there were some celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Seacrest.
In recent weeks, Tesla has been mired by a slew of high-profile executive departures.
But instead of addressing Tesla’s recent woes, audience members were left with broad futuristic declarations from Musk.
At one point, Milken read an audience question that asked about AI accelerating Musk's efforts in space.
“Oddly enough, one of the areas where there’s almost no AI 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 haven’t seen a use for it.”
Musk also said he's been pondering AI safety for a long time. “I think we want to have a maximum truth-seeking AI. That’s very important. The AI should not be taught to lie. It should not be taught to say things that are not true,” he said.
Musk ended his chat by discussing what keeps him up at night: end-of-civilization threats. And then, he quickly exited the stage without taking 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: yasmin.khorram@yahooinc.com
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