Elon Musk says negative comments affect him: 'I'm not an android'

Elon Musk arrives for the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York.

World's richest man Elon Musk has revealed that he's not completely immune to the negative comments about him made in the media and on the internet.

In his first public appearance after taking over Twitter for $44 billion, Musk on Monday attended the Met Gala with his mother.

Elon Musk and his mother, supermodel Maye Musk, arrive for the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York.

Revealing how negative comments about him --especially after the hostile takeover -- affect him, Musk said, "Well, it does get to me sometimes, I mean, I'm not like, you know - I do have feelings. I'm not an android."

He, however, added that he tries to "take these things with a grain of salt".

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO also said that his intentions are often misinterpreted as something other than working towards the greater good.

"They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but I think it's mostly paved with bad intentions. But every now and again, there's a good intention in there and hopefully, my good intentions do not pave the road to hell," Elon Musk said.

Talking about his plans for Twitter, he said that there will be mechanisms in place to shield the platform from trolls, bots, and scamsters.

"That's obviously diminishing the user experience. And we don't want people getting tricked out of their money and that kind of thing. So, I'm definitely on the warpath, so if somebody is operating a bot and troll army, then I'm definitely their enemy," Musk said, adding that he wants it to be "as broadly inclusive as possible".

"The goal that I have should that, you know, everything come to fruition with Twitter is to have a service that is broadly, as broadly inclusive as possible, where ideally, most of America is on it and talking," he said.

Meanwhile, activist groups called on Twitter advertisers Tuesday to boycott the service if it opens the gates to abusive and misinformative posts with  Musk as its owner.

"Your brand risks association with a platform amplifying hate, extremism, health misinformation, and conspiracy theorists," said an open letter signed by more than two dozen groups including Media Matters, Access Now and Ultraviolet.

"Under Musk's management, Twitter risks becoming a cesspool of misinformation, with your brand attached."

The groups urged advertisers to require that Twitter maintain its content moderation policies as a non-negotiable term of doing business with the platform.

(With inputs from AFP)