Elon Musk tells Rishi Sunak: AI friend would be 'great' for my son with a learning disability

Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak during an 'in conversation' event at a summit on AI on November 2023.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk believes that it would be great if one of his sons, who has a learning disability, had an AI "friend". In a 2023 video doing rounds on social media now, the Tesla and Neuralink boss opened up to former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at an AI summit. There, while discussing the potential benefits of AI, Musk also advocated building friendships with it.

"One of my sons has trouble making friends, and an AI friend would actually be great for him," Musk told Sunak.

Time to build friendships with AI!"One of my son has trouble making friends, and an AI friend would actually be great for him."-Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/t63m1VpMkU
SMX (@iam_smx) March 29, 2025

Musk also said that AI could be "the best and most patient tutor".

"We are seeing the most disruptive force in history here," Musk had said. "There will come a point where no job is needed - you can have a job if you want one for personal satisfaction but AI will do everything. "It's both good and bad - one of the challenges in the future will be how do we find meaning in life."

One such challenge presented itself last October when a teenager lost his life after "befriending" an AI chatbot.

A Class 9 student in Florida, US, killed himself to be with "Daenerys Targaryen" — a lifelike artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot named after the leading character from Game of Thrones. The 14-year-old confessed to being in love with "Dany" and had spent months talking to chatbots on Character.AI, a role-playing app that allows users to create their own AI characters or chat with characters created by others.

Sewell Setzer III, who went by "Daenero" on the AI app, died in February. On the night of February 28, he told Dany that he loved her, and that he would soon come home to her. Sewell then put down his phone, picked up his stepfather’s handgun and shot himself.

His mother filed a lawsuit this week against Character.AI, accusing the company of being responsible for his death, The New York Times reported. She called the company’s technology “dangerous and untested” and said it can “trick customers into handing over their most private thoughts and feelings.”