2023-06-20 11:30:00
TECH – From June 14 to 17, the VivaTech show hosted world leaders in technological innovation, culminating on June 16 with a conference by Elon Musk questioned by Maurice Levy, the show’s founder.
It is a true profession of faith that the creator of Tesla and SpaceX shared in front of an enthusiastic room of around 3,000 spectators. The businessman gives metaphysical meaning to his quest for technological progress.
Inspiration
According to him, there is a possibility that conscious life only exists on Earth, at least as far as our galaxy is concerned, and then “the light of consciousness” will not “only a small candle in an immense night”. So we have to “do everything so that this light does not go out”.
For Elon Musk, it is essential to ensure that our planet is well, that it is safe for civilization, but it is also necessary to extend life beyond the earth “in other planets of the Solar System, and eventually, in other solar systems”.
The creator of SpaceX also sees in space exploration, an exciting and necessary source of inspiration for all humanity. According to him, technological progress, by making it possible to discover the universe, also makes it possible to discover its nature. It broadens the spectrum of consciousness and participates in the quest for meaning in life. An approach that he describes as being the expression of his “basic philosophy”.
A philosophy which is at the origin of the creation of most of its companies.
In summary, Elon Musk claims philanthropic motivations focused on understanding and protecting life. Building technology to travel beyond Earth is part of that. Develop renewable energy sources too.
And this is how the creator of Tesla envisages the development of the electric car, which today represents only 2% of the world’s car fleet: as a beneficial step forward in the quest for renewable energies.
AI regulation
Conversely, while Elon Musk is one of the creators of artificial intelligence made available to the public, he calls, without believing it, for a moratorium on the development of these technologies like Chat GPT. Failing to convince the developers to “to make a break”, the businessman wants to at least try to warn about the potentially catastrophic effects of “super artificial intelligence”, and encourage caution. He strongly recommends the implementation of regulations concerning artificial intelligence.
Regarding Twitter, the billionaire explains that he was one of his big users and that he understood that the platform had a negative effect on civilization, a destructive impact on civil society. “My hope, my aspiration, has been to change that,” he said. So he bought “too expensive”the social network and made radical changes to reverse the trend.
To the objection raised by Maurice Levy, that these changes are not always well received, Elon Musk responds that regular users of the social network appreciate them. The latter have, according to him, seen an improvement in their use of a Twitter free of 90% of the bots and 95% of the child pornography that polluted it.
He adds that, for the sake of transparency, the codes making up the Twitter algorithm are “open source”, that is to say available to everyone. A transparency that Elon Musk considers necessary for the confidence which cannot be satisfied with a “take my word for it”.
The owner of Twitter also claims that most advertisers who left the platform have returned or are about to return.
Freedom of expression
To Cristel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, who raises the issue of misinformation and “fake news” and points out that Twitter has decided not to apply the “code of conduct” that the European Union would like to impose, Elon Musk responds with a joke “False information? I don’t believe it! How do I know if it really exists?”before emphasizing that freedom of speech must be guaranteed to everyone, within the limits of the laws of each country and that Twitter does not have to go beyond the law of a country.
He adds that freedom of expression only matters and makes sense if “You can say something you don’t like”. Elon Musk still argues that the only alternative would be censorship and “that it’s only a matter of time before censorship turns against you”.
Before answering questions from the audience, Elon Musk concludes his speech with a call for a rapid agreement in Ukraine and Russia.
“It is terribly sad that the flower of the youth of Ukraine and Russia, who does not want to be there, is dying in the trenches. And I am sure that we can find ways to make peace soon” , pleads there under the applause of the room.
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