A rare speech in France. In a thirty-minute interview on France 2 this Tuesday, Elon Musk spoke again about the possible establishment of a Tesla factory in France, compliance with European regulations or even his political ambitions.
At the beginning of the interview, he sketched out a sheepish “hello” in French. When she arrived on the stage of the Vivatech show, she was expected like a rock star on the Dôme stage. And for good reason, he highlighted with France 2 “the energy and 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 little spark.” He wants to “do everything possible so that the Earth does not become extinct.” He spoke again about wanting a multiplanetary life with SpaceX, “because it is essential for the future of human civilization.” He and 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 next few years.”
And to add: “We have to be very careful with 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, smiling.
Elon Musk stressed the “talents” present in France and that we must continue to attract them to “the second European economy”. Buyers who buy a Tesla car in France benefit from the purchase subsidy of 5,000 euros. 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 medium and assumed: “obviously there is a margin of opportunism.”
“I prefer to participate”
Regarding artificial intelligence, he says that “there may be misuses, such as misinformation.” When asked about the use of these types of tools in China, he answers: “Each country has its own use of these technologies.”
On the regulation of AI in Europe, he believes that it should “serve and go in the direction of the interests of the people and not constrain them.”
His X.ai project is still “embryonic” for now. “In the AI race, you are either a participant or an observer and I prefer to participate,” he says.
Head of Tesla, SpaceX, but also of Twitter that he bought last November, Elon Musk defends himself against any lack of moderation: “We have not reduced moderation in the strict sense, we still have 4,000 people working on moderation (…) Speech of hate has been reduced between 20 and 40%,” according to him. Although the 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 due to the increase in hate speech, “you have to look at the data” according to him. And to claim that “advertisers are coming back.”
As in his time at VivaTech, he persists and signs his definition of freedom of expression and censorship on his platform: “Where to put the cursor?”, he begs.
“Twitter will obey the law”
Regarding the European regulation called the Digital Services Law, he assures that “Twitter will obey and respect the law. If a law is enacted, Twitter will commit 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 to 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 the United States. He is a naturalized American. And according to the rules established by the American Constitution, he could not present his candidacy. At the moment, therefore, no political ambitions for the billionaire.
Source: BFM TV
