Elon Musk spent 30 minutes expounding on space exploration, declining birth rates, free speech and artificial intelligence in space in a highly anticipated appearance at the 27th annual Global Milken Conference.
Basically everything except Tesla (TSLA).
Not once did the tech billionaire mention his famous EV maker, or X, formerly known as Twitter, or the controversy surrounding them.
Instead, during a question and answer session with the conference’s founder, Michael Milken, Musk declared, “if you’re going to die somewhere, it might as well be Mars, I’d like to explore a little before I die.”
Musk specifically mentioned — twice — California’s $11 billion high-speed rail while discussing laws and regulations.
“At this point, California has made almost everything illegal,” Musk said. “Historically, what eliminated the regulatory cobwebs was war. I would rather not have a war.”
Instead, he 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 length of the Beverly Hilton hotel. Still, some began to leave amid the meandering conversation.
While most of those in attendance were leaders in the financial world, there were a few celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Seacrest.
In recent weeks, Tesla has been mired by a series of high-level executive departures.
But instead of addressing Tesla’s recent problems, the public was left with broad futuristic statements from Musk.
At one point, Milken read an audience question asking about AI accelerating Musk’s efforts in space.
“Interestingly, one of the areas where there is almost no use of AI is space exploration,” Musk said, adding that his company SpaceX and satellite business Starlink do not use AI. “I’m not against it, we just didn’t see a use for it.”
Musk also said he has long pondered the safety of AI. “I think we want to have an AI that seeks the truth as much as possible, this is very important. 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: the threats of the end of civilization. And then he quickly left the stage without answering any impromptu questions.
Yasmin Khorram is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow Yasmin on Twitter/X @YasminKhorram and so on LinkedIn. Send interesting tips to Yasmin: yasmin.khorram@yahooinc.com
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