Relive Elon Musk’s talk at VivaTech

After an hour of discussion on artificial intelligence, Twitter or SpaceX, the conference ends.

Many people still wanted to ask Elon Musk their question, but Maurice Lévy cut the session short.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see, it will be rolled out slowly,” says Elon Musk, when asked about Neuralink, his company that wants to implant chips in the brain. Tests on human beings will also begin gradually.

“Not everyone is going to be equipped all at once.

“If Stephen Hawking was alive, it would be super useful to him!” even admits Elon Musk.

Maurice Lévy questions Elon Musk about his actions with his company Starlink during the war in Ukraine. The company notably offered communication methods in the country.

“The situation is very complex. Starlink played a crucial role because Russia destroyed all communication systems and Starlink is the only one that could survive,” says Elon Musk.

“Starlink is today the backbone of the Ukrainian communication system,” adds the entrepreneur.

Elon Musk was also moved by the lack of resolution of the ongoing war: “It is extremely sad that the Ukrainian and Russian youth are dying on the battlefields at this time.”

After questions from Maurice Lévy and bosses of large companies, Elon Musk is invited to answer questions from people present in the Dôme de Paris.

Elon Musk is asked about the role of Linda Yaccarino, new boss of Twitter and in charge of bringing advertisers back to the platform.

“Linda is great and will do great things for the social network”, judges the owner of Twitter.

Elon Musk says she will be able to understand the point of view of advertisers and make sure to adapt the content present on Twitter for brands.

Since his arrival at the head of Twitter last October, many advertisers have indeed chosen to stop their advertising investments on the social network.

Several interlocutors joined the conference, including Antoine Arnault of the LVMH group. Bernard Arnault’s son says he tried to make an advertisement with Midjourney, the image-generating artificial intelligence. He asks Elon Musk if the advertising and production industry is going to be razed by AI:

“AI is going to be the most disruptive power in history. But we humans are smarter than other creators. For the first time, we can have a ‘being’ smarter than us”, judge Elon Musk.

“With AI, we have created an era of abundance, all services will be available on demand. This is the positive side of artificial intelligence: abundance”

Asked about the many abuses in recent months in terms of misinformation and problematic comments on Twitter, Elon Musk advocates freedom of expression.

“It is important to be able to say the things that bother, otherwise there is no point in freedom. If everyone does not have the freedom to speak, it is censorship”, affirms the entrepreneur.

He adds that “if we choose this path, the censorship will turn against you.”

Twitter improvements according to Elon Musk:

• 90% fewer bots and spam
• 95% less pornographic and child pornography content
• A free and accessible algorithm
• A spike in the number of users

The advertisers would have announced to Elon Musk “that they were going to come back”.

Why did you decide to acquire the social network? Elon Musk notes that he was above all a real user of Twitter and that his account was one of the most important on the platform. “I was following this very closely and sensing the direction of events,” confesses Elon Musk.

“I found that Twitter had negative influences on civilization and everything that undermines civilization is inherently bad. We had to get Twitter back on a positive course,” adds the owner of the social network.

Three questions are put to Elon Musk:

• Why did you decide to acquire it?
• What was wrong with Twitter and why did you want to change it?
• Why do you think you will be successful in this project?

OpenAi co-founder Elon Musk has closely followed the company’s powerful expansion into the artificial intelligence market and especially the ChatGPT chatbot. The billionaire also wants a moratorium to regulate artificial intelligence.

“I think we should interrupt the events. There is a danger around superintelligence. Maybe that precipitates catastrophic consequences”, explains Elon Musk.

“There are chances of positive consequences, but some can be negative and devastating,” nuanced the entrepreneur, insisting on AI regulation.

Elon Musk talks about the beginnings of Tesla: “There was a need for the Tesla because there were no electric vehicles at that time, no company in this field, no start-ups.”

“For Tesla and SpaceX, I thought the success rate would be 10% so it could have failed,” admits Elon Musk.

“It’s crystal meth that motivates me. It gives me wings,” Elon Musk quips when Maurice Levy asks him about his sources of entrepreneurial motivation.

The Tesla boss quickly clarified that it was a joke. He had in the past sparked a lot of reactions by smoking a cannabis joint live during a podcast.

Maurice Lévy wants to “come back to Earth” and talk about Elon Musk’s creations in recent years. The debate opens with PayPal since Elon Musk is at the origin with “X.com”, ancestor of the online bank.

Does the billionaire regret selling the business to eBay?

“In hindsight, it was good. Perhaps the company would no longer exist without this sale,” admits Elon Musk.

“There’s the potential to do something bigger than PayPal, which I’m trying to do. Look at SpaceX! I’m trying to finish a task that I started 24 years ago and I have to finish it because it will be positive for civilization,” adds the billionaire.

Asked about his goals for SpaceX, Elon Musk said he wanted to end up “creating multi-planetary life” and therefore beyond Earth.

“We still have to be aware of our place on Earth”, nuanced Elon Musk.

Maurice Lévy asks him if he has ever seen UFOs or extraterrestrials. Elon Musk’s response? “No. I think we are the only sentient beings in this galaxy.”

The billionaire, however, wants to expand his activities beyond Earth and visit other systems. Elon Musk takes as an example the discovery of the Moon in 1969, “the most formidable thing that Man has done.”

VivaTech organizer asks Elon Musk about his perception of himself: “Some think you’re a genius, some don’t, what do you think?”

“I’m definitely not Evil, that’s for sure, laughs Elon Musk. You can see a halo above my head”

“The wings are there but they’re hard to see. I’m not evil, I just have a lot of inspiration,” added the billionaire.

Maurice Lévy, organizer of the VivaTech show, is in charge of interviewing Elon Musk for this conference event. The organizer reveals the career of Elon Musk and his creations (Paypal, Tesla, OpenAI…).

“Everyone wanted to come, we had to change rooms for the Dôme de Paris because a room for 1,500 people was too small”, notes Maurice Lévy.

The owner of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter arrives on the stage of the Dome of Paris to his conference event at VivaTech.

Elon Musk will discuss with Maurice Lévy, organizer of the show. The two men will largely discuss artificial intelligence.

Elon Musk is desired on the stage of the Dôme de Paris. Normally scheduled for 4 p.m., the conference with the billionaire has not yet started.

The 4,000 or so spectators continue to wait.

Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault had a good lunch together. The son of the CEO of the LVMH group, Antoine Arnault, unveiled a photo of the two billionaires in a story on Instagram.

“THE photo”, added Antoine Arnault in the caption.

The President of the Republic met Elon Musk at the end of the morning to discuss the businessman’s future investments in France.

“Let’s work together!”, tweeted Emmanuel Macron, with a photo of a handshake, a hashtag #ChooseFrance and a French flag.

Visibly very enthusiastic in the photo, this meeting could therefore be synonymous with announcements from Elon Musk.

The 4000 places of the Dôme de Paris are filling up visibly while Elon Musk is due to arrive on the stage in fifteen minutes.

The “first come, first served” rule applies to this VivaTech show.

The crowd gathers in front of the Dome of Paris where Elon Musk must intervene in less than 30 minutes.

Our journalists are live from the VivaTech show to follow the atmosphere of this event.

Busy day for Elon Musk in Paris.

Before his conference at VivaTech which will take place at 4 p.m., the owner of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter met Emmanuel Macron at the end of the morning.

Arrived in Tesla at the Elysée, the billionaire emerged from the interview with the French president without making any declarations, noted AFP.

Elon Musk’s lunch took place with the CEO of the LVMH group, Bernard Arnault.

Welcome to this new special VivaTech live, on the occasion of Elon Musk’s conference at the show, which starts at 4 p.m.

Tech&Co makes you experience this event live here, from our website. You can also follow the entrepreneur’s interview translated into French on the channels of BFM Business and Tech&Co.