2023-06-19 19:58:45
Elon Musk was the guest of France 2 on the occasion of his visit to Paris as part of the VivaTech show.
A rare speech in France. In an interview of about thirty minutes on France 2 this Tuesday, Elon Musk returned to a potential establishment of a Tesla factory in France, to compliance with European regulations or even to his political ambitions.
At the beginning of the interview, he sketched a shy “hello” in French. When he arrived on stage at the Vivatech show, he was expected like a rockstar on the Dôme stage. And for good reason, he underlined with France 2 “the energy and the enthusiasm of the crowd, a source of inspiration”.
True to his speech during his conference at VivaTech, he continued: “My dream is to advance and protect civilization”, while evoking the various missions of Twitter, Tesla or SpaceX.
The billionaire intends to “play a role in civilization” which he considers “fragile” and describes it as “like a small spark”. He wants to “do everything possible so that the Earth does not die out”. He again spoke of wanting a multi-planetary life with SpaceX, “because it is essential for the future of human civilization”. And to imagine a city built on Mars in a few years.
“You have to be very careful”
He was also questioned about a possible establishment of a Tesla battery factory in France, a gigafactory. No official announcement was made and Elon Musk remained very vague: “it is very likely that Tesla will do something in France in the years to come”.
And to add: “we have to be very careful in what we announce around Tesla, but what I can tell you is that Emmanuel Macron cares about the future of France”. The two men have met twice in a month. “I’m a fan of this president,” he added, smirking.
Elon Musk underlined the “talents” present in France and that we must continue to attract them to “the second European economy”. Buyers who acquire a Tesla car in France benefit from the 5,000 euro purchase subsidy. In this way, sales exploded.
For Elon Musk, this is “a good thing to localize production in any case, it’s better for the environment”. He thus returned to his relationship with the environment and assumed: “obviously there is a margin of opportunism”.
“I prefer to participate”
Regarding artificial intelligence, he says that “there can be misuses, such as misinformation”. Asked about the use of such tools in China, he kicks in: “Each country has its own use of these technologies”.
On the regulation of AI in Europe, he believes that it must “serve and go in the direction of people’s interests and not constrain them”.
His X.ai project remains “embryonic” for the moment. “In the AI race, you are either a participant or an observer and I prefer to participate,” he says.
Boss of Tesla, SpaceX, but also of Twitter which he bought last November, Elon Musk defends himself from any lack of moderation: “we have not reduced moderation strictly speaking, we still have 4000 people working at moderation (…) Hate speech has reduced by 20 to 40%” according to him. Even though studies show the opposite, he is surprised: “I don’t know what statistics you are talking about”, he objects to Anne-Sophie Lapix
His face closes when the journalist mentions the flight of advertisers because of the increase in hate speech, “you have to look at the data” according to him. And to affirm that the “advertisers are coming back”.
Just like during his time at VivaTech, he persists and signs on his definition of freedom of expression and censorship on his platform: “where to place the cursor?”, he pleads.
“Twitter will obey the law”
Regarding the European regulation named Digital Services Act, he assures that “Twitter will obey and respect the law. If a law is enacted, Twitter will undertake to respect it”.
One thing is certain, the richest man in the world will not be president of the United States. To the question, “Would you like to be president?” His answer could not be clearer: “no, I don’t want to. And to continue: “If I were president, I could not send rockets to the Moon or Mars. I couldn’t create sustainable electric vehicles.”
Technically, he couldn’t even qualify for the position since he was born in South Africa and not in the United States. He is a naturalized American. And according to the rules laid down by the American Constitution, he could not present his candidacy. For the time being, therefore, no political ambition for the billionaire.
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