Elon Musk, tech billionaire and Twitter owner, recently sat down with the BBC for an interview that provided insight into the life of the always-in-news businessman. While the BBC called the interview “whimsical”, Musk touched the surface on several topics such as Twitter files, AI and breaking news. Here are 10 takeaways from the interview:
1. Musk admitted that he only went through with buying Twitter because he believed a judge would force him to go through with the transaction. He also joked that his dog is now Twitter's CEO. He also added that he wanted to pay less for the Twitter deal after discovering a huge chunk of automated bots on the microblogging site. But later in the conversation he clarified that he wouldn't sell Twitter even if offered what he had paid initially.
2. The Twitter CEO claimed that the company is "roughly" breaking even, although this claim cannot be verified immediately.
3. Musk said he was working to clamp down on misinformation and challenged the BBC reporter over reports that hate speech is on the rise on the platform.
4. The billionaire peppered the conversation with dirty jokes and less-serious statements, as is typical for him, BBC said.
5. Musk said that AI had been around for a long time but needed an "easy interface" like the chatbot ChatGPT had provided.
6. Musk has been warning about AI safety for decades and believes there should be a regulatory body to ensure it doesn't pose a danger to the public.
7. On the controversial Twitter Blue fee, the interviewer cited the New York Times losing verification because they refused to pay for it on principle. "It's a small amount of money, so I don't know what their problem is. We're going to treat everyone equally,” Musk said.
8. After taking over Twitter, Musk promised to clean house. Part of that process was the "Twitter Files," which released emails about previous management decisions to several hand-picked journalists who wrote long Twitter threads based on the information. The files and the claims made about them have been the subject of much debate, and in recent days Musk has had public spats with some reporters.
Read: Twitter no longer exists as company merges with Elon Musk's 'everything app' called 'X'
9. Musk believes Twitter should be the most accurate platform possible, and he wants to turn one of Twitter's buildings in San Francisco into a homeless shelter, although the building owner won't allow it. "We would like to do it right now," he said.
10. Musk argued that for breaking news, "If you want real-time news, this is the best place, it's Twitter." However, he did not provide further examples of how Twitter might try to address the problem of false news.
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