Elon Musk is in a black suit jacket and a black graphic t-shirt on stage. He is looking to the top left corner of the image.

Elon Musk says Anthropic’s philosopher has no stake in the future because she doesn’t have kids. Here’s her response.

by with No Comment Xpandfy


Marc Piasecki/Getty Images

  • Anthropic’s resident philosopher, Amanda Askell, helps shape Claude’s personality and morals.
  • Elon Musk said she’s not qualified because she doesn’t have kids and no stake in the future.
  • Askell had thoughts.

Anthropic famously employs a Scottish philosopher named Amanda Askell.

Her job is to imbue its chatbot, Claude, with a personality and a set of moral guardrails. She is essentially teaching it to be cool and good.

Elon Musk, however, doesn’t think she’s qualified.

“Those without children lack a stake in the future,” Musk posted on X in response to a profile of Askell published by The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal profile does not say whether Askell has kids. Musk, who has imbued his own chatbot, Grok, with a distinct personality, has 14 of them. Musk is known for promoting a brand of pronatalism that’s become popular among Silicon Valley elites.

Askell responded with her trademark dry intellectualism.

“I think it depends on how much you care about people in general vs. your own kin,” Askell wrote. “I do intend to have kids, but I still feel like I have a strong personal stake in the future because I care a lot about people thriving, even if they’re not related to me.”

“I think caring about your children can make you feel invested in the future in a new and very profound way, and I do understand people wanting to convey that,” she added.

The responses to their short back-and-forth were as varied as you might expect on Musk’s social media network. A day later, Askell posted again.

“I’m too right wing for the left and I’m too left wing for the right,” she said. “I’m too into humanities for those in tech and I’m too into tech for those in the humanities. What I’m learning is that failing to polarize is itself quite polarizing.”




Source link

Chong Ming Lee, Junior News Reporter at Business Insider's Singapore bureau.

Elon Musk said he’ll congratulate Blue Origin if they land on the moon before SpaceX — he’s focused on something else

by with No Comment Xpandfy

Elon Musk says he’s happy to lose one lunar milestone if it helps him win the bigger prize.

The SpaceX chief said in a post on X on Monday that he would congratulate Blue Origin if it lands on the moon before SpaceX, as his company focuses on a more ambitious goal: building a “self-growing city” on the moon.

“What really matters for the future is being able to land millions of tons of equipment and people to build a self-growing city on the moon,” Musk wrote. “In this respect, perhaps we are be more the tortoise than the hare for now,” he added.

Musk’s comments about SpaceX being more “tortoise than the hare” came in response to an X post by Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, who shared a black-and-white image of a tortoise. The post on Monday appeared to be a nod to the tortoise-and-hare fable, framing Blue Origin as the slow-and-steady contender and SpaceX as the faster but more distracted rival.

Musk and Bezos have been rivals for years, frequently clashing over their space ambitions at SpaceX and Blue Origin, as well as over their fortunes.

After long touting Mars as SpaceX’s main destination, Musk said on Sunday that the company has shifted its focus to the moon.

“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years,” he wrote in a post on X.

“That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the moon is faster,” he added.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that SpaceX told investors it is targeting March 2027 for an uncrewed landing on the moon.

In a separate post on X, Musk said on Sunday that SpaceX would “continue to launch directly from Earth to Mars while possible, rather than moon to Mars.”

“Fuel is relatively scarce on the moon,” Musk added.

Musk previously said SpaceX would send an uncrewed mission to Mars by the end of 2026.

“No, we’re going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction,” he said in January last year in response to a post on X.

Musk is known for rolling out bold timelines for projects such as electric vehicles — only to revise or abandon them later.

Bezos has long emphasised the moon as humanity’s next destination, and has taken aim at Musk’s push to colonize Mars.

“Go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first and see if you like it, because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars,” Bezos said in 2019.

During a presentation for project Blue Moon, Bezos included a slide about Mars with the title “FAR, FAR AWAY,” referencing SpaceX’s Mars ambition.

Blue Origin said previously it aimed to reach the moon by 2023 — a target it did not meet.




Source link

Shuby headshot

Elon Musk said we’d reach Mars in 2026. Now, he says SpaceX is building a city on the moon.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

Elon Musk’s SpaceX just overhauled its to-do list.

In an X post on Sunday, the CEO said that the company is shifting its focus from Mars to creating a “self-growing city” on the moon.

“It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time),” Musk wrote. “This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.”

The announcement is a big departure from Musk’s previous comments about reaching the red planet this year.

In 2020, the SpaceX CEO said he was confident that the company would land humans on Mars by 2026.

“If we get lucky, maybe four years,” Musk said at an awards show in 2020. “We want to send an uncrewed vehicle there in two years.”

The space company has historically delayed ambitious projects because of their complexity and regulatory challenges. Last week, the company delayed the Artemis 2 moon mission, the first human moon mission in more than 50 years.

Mars is still part of the plan

In Sunday’s post, Musk added that SpaceX would continue building a Mars city, starting in five to seven years.

“But the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” he wrote.

Last week, Musk announced that SpaceX would acquire xAI, his AI company behind the chatbot Grok. XAI purchased the social media platform X in March 2025.

The CEO wrote that SpaceX’s xAI acquisition would create “the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform.”

In the memo, Musk shared plans to have “self-growing bases” and factories on the moon. He also mentioned having “an entire civilization on Mars.”




Source link

Roya Shahidi photo

Elon Musk says money can’t buy happiness. Research suggests it can — up to a point.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

Elon Musk wants you to know that the money hasn’t made him happy.

“Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness’ really knew what they were talking about,” Elon Musk wrote in a post on X on Thursday with a sad-face emoji.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO is by far the richest person in the world. Per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is worth $668 billion. The second-richest person in the world, Larry Page, is worth $285 billion.

Musk’s wealth has soared by $49 billion since the start of the year, buoyed by SpaceX’s high valuation and news of its merger with his AI startup, XAI.

So, is Musk right or wrong that money can’t buy you happiness?

Studies show that money does bring happiness, but there could be a limit for the ultrawealthy.

David Bartram, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Leicester, told Business Insider that while wealth and happiness are linked, “It’s very much a matter of ‘diminishing returns.'”

“Once you’ve got a few million, anything extra is meaningless for happiness,” he said.

Bartram said for the very wealthy, “happiness is probably best achieved by having a sense that you’ve done some good in the world, and that you’ve treated people around you with care and kindness. It’s not exactly rocket science.”

A 2021 study by Matthew Killingsworth, a senior fellow at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, found that happiness and feelings of well-being increased in tandem with a person’s rising income.

However, the amount of money needed for happiness becomes an exponentially moving goalpost, Killingsworth concluded in a 2024 paper.

While the data he analyzed did not examine what millionaires or billionaires are experiencing, Killingsworth said it was “plausible” that the pattern would continue among the world’s wealthiest.

Musk discussed the relationship between happiness and wealth in a recent conversation with Nikhil Kamath on the “People by WTF” podcast.

“Aim to make more than you take. Be a net contributor to society,” Musk said in November.

“It’s kind of like the pursuit of happiness. You know, if you want to create something valuable financially, you don’t pursue that. It’s best to actually pursue providing useful products and services. If you do that, then money will come as a natural consequence, as opposed to pursuing money directly,” he added.




Source link

Sam-Altman-says-he-cant-wait-to-get-Elon-Musk.jpeg

Sam Altman says he can’t wait to get Elon Musk under oath

by with No Comment Xpandfy

  • Sam Altman said he’s “really excited” to get Elon Musk under oath.
  • Their case will go to trial in April, a California judge said in January.
  • Musk has accused OpenAI and Altman of misleading him into thinking it would remain a nonprofit.

Sam Altman is pumped to take on Elon Musk in court.

“Really excited to get Elon under oath in a few months, Christmas in April!” the OpenAI CEO said in a Tuesday evening X post.

He also reposted his chief security officer Jason Kwon’s X post, with the caption “concerning.”

The post contained screenshots of a court filing from OpenAI’s attorneys, which said that Musk preferred using messaging apps like Signal or XChat with message retention settings of a week or less.

Altman and Musk took their yearslong public feud to the next level in 2024. Musk, who is Tesla and SpaceX’s CEO, launched a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman in February 2024, accusing Altman of jeopardizing its nonprofit mission.

Musk said that he contributed $38 million to OpenAI, thinking it would remain a nonprofit. He was one of the company’s founders, along with Altman, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, and others.

Despite OpenAI’s attorneys’ attempts to have the case thrown out, a California judge said in a January hearing that there was enough evidence to go to trial, which is set for April.

The billionaire duo have been trading barbs on social media. Musk attacked OpenAI’s ChatGPT on January 20, writing “Don’t let your loved ones use ChatGPT.” He was responding to an X post alleging that the chatbot has been linked to multiple deaths since 2022.

Altman responded to Musk’s post, slamming Tesla’s Autopilot system as unsafe, and questioning xAI’s Grok chatbot. Grok has faced criticism from governments in several countries after reports of Grok users uploading pictures of women and minors and asking the chatbot to undress them.

Representatives for Musk and Altman did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.




Source link

Jacob Shamsian hollis unsmiling headshot cassidy edit 2

Elon Musk discussed plans to party with Jeffrey Epstein on his Caribbean island, newly released emails show

by with No Comment Xpandfy

In November 2012, Jeffrey Epstein emailed Elon Musk about sending a helicopter to whisk the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to his private island in the Caribbean.

“how many people will you be for the heli to island,” Epstein asked Musk in an email exchange, which was made public Friday by the Justice Department.

Musk said he’d need just two seats — for himself and his then-partner, Tallulah Riley.

“What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Musk asked.

The emails, released Friday, were part of a cache of 3 million files the Justice Department released from its yearslong investigation into the convicted sex offender. They include several exchanges between Epstein, Musk, and their assistants.

Responding to the revelations early Saturday on his social media platform, X, Musk said: “No one pushed harder than me to have the Epstein files released and I’m glad that has finally happened.

“I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express’, but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.

“I don’t care about that, but what I do care about is that we at least attempt to prosecute those who committed serious crimes with Epstein, especially regarding heinous exploitation of underage girls.”

Epstein — who counted President Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and various other prominent politicians and businessmen among his acquaintances — killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He had registered as a pedophile in 2008, after pleading guilty to less severe sex offenses.

Shortly after Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, Musk said he had declined invitations to Epstein’s island in the US Virgin Islands and recounted only one meeting with him. Musk has not been accused of wrongdoing.

“Several years ago, I was at his house in Manhattan for about 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon with Talulah [Riley], as she was curious about meeting this strange person for a novel she was writing,” he told Vanity Fair at the time. “We did not see anything inappropriate at all, apart from weird art. He tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined.”

Musk has since said in social media posts that he “refused” to visit Epstein’s island despite multiple attempts from Epstein.

The emails released Friday appear to show him planning to visit Epstein’s island at least twice.

In addition to the November 2012 planned visit, Musk indicated he would visit Epstein’s island in January 2014.

“Will be in the BVI/St Bart’s area over the holidays,” Musk wrote to Epstein in December 2013, referring to the British Virgin Islands. “Is there a good time to visit?”

Epstein said he’d be available for the first week of January.

“always space for you,” Epstein told Musk.

After some back-and-forth about their schedules, Musk appeared to confirm that he would visit Epstein on January 2 of 2014.

“When should we head to your island on the 2nd?” Musk wrote.

Epstein later canceled on Musk, according to another email. He said he looked forward to spending time with Musk with “just fun on the agenda.”

“I was really looking forward to finally spending some time together with just fun as the agenda,” Epstein wrote. “so i am very disappointed. Hopefully we can schedule another time in the near future.”

The emails show Epstein planning to meet Musk on other occasions as well.

In February of 2013, Musk’s personal assistant tried to nail down plans for a meeting at SpaceX’s offices in California. Epstein’s assistant said Musk had suggested the location.

“Shall we organize a lunch for Elon and Jeffrey to get together at SpaceX in the coming weeks?” Musk’s assistant wrote. “Elon is generally available at SpaceX on Mon, Thurs and Fri each week.”

It isn’t clear from the emails reviewed by Business Insider if that meeting took place. Musk has previously said that Epstein never “toured” SpaceX’s facilities.

In early March of that year, Epstein directly asked Musk about his availability.

“now its time for fun,” Epstein told Musk.

In the emails, Musk told Epstein he was busy with work at Tesla and SpaceX. Epstein suggested he get more sleep.

“benefit analysis would probably show , tesla doing better with you getting more sleep,” he said.

Musk disagreed.

“Normally I would agree, as I have found that my total daily productivity is optimal at around 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep.”

The two may have met later that spring. In another email exchange, dated April 2013, Epstein’s assistant said he planned to meet Musk at the Milken Institute economic conference.

The Justice Department emails also show Epstein inquiring with Musk about Solar City, a solar electricity company that was later acquired by Tesla. Epstein said in September 2012 that he wanted to use its services for his properties in the US Virgin Islands and New Mexico.

“is there any one at Solar City that my guys can talk to about electriying the caribean island?” Epstein asked. “or the new mexico ranch”

This story has been updated.




Source link

Elon-Musk-says-subscription-prices-for-FSD-are-going-up.jpeg

Elon Musk says subscription prices for FSD are going up as Tesla kills Autopilot

by with No Comment Xpandfy

  • Elon Musk said Tesla’s FSD subscription could soon cost more than $100.
  • He said the subscription price, currently $99, will rise as the FSD’s capabilities improve.
  • He said the price would be worth it, since the driver can sleep or use their phone the whole ride.

Elon Musk said Tesla will raise subscription prices for its Full Self-Driving software as it gets better, and it could cost more than $100.

The Tesla CEO said in an early Friday X post, “I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve.”

“The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD),” he said. Tesla’s FSD is an advanced driver assistance system that aims to enable its cars to be fully self-driving.

Currently, customers can buy the system for $8,000 on a one-time basis, per the vehicle’s listing on Tesla’s website. But this option will no longer be available from February 14.

The executive was responding to a post about Tesla killing its Autopilot service in the US. Autopilot comes with safety features and tools, such as Traffic-Aware Cruise Control.

Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.




Source link

The-gloves-are-off-in-the-feud-between-Sam-Altman.jpeg

The gloves are off in the feud between Sam Altman and Elon Musk

by with No Comment Xpandfy

  • Sam Altman and Elon Musk escalated their long-running feud on Tuesday in a series of posts on X.
  • Each of the tech giants traded barbs about deaths and safety concerns tied to each other’s products.
  • The pair is in the middle of a lengthy legal battle over OpenAI’s status as a for-profit entity.

Sam Altman and Elon Musk are at it again, with each of the tech titans taking aim at the other in a series of heated posts on X.

Musk appeared to start the latest escalation early on Tuesday morning, when he posted “Don’t let your loved ones use ChatGPT” in response to a post that use of OpenAI’s chatbot had been linked to the deaths of children and adults since it was released in 2022.

Altman fired back, first in defense of ChatGPT and OpenAI’s desire to protect its users, and then blasting Tesla’s Autopilot technology calling it unsafe.

“It is genuinely hard; we need to protect vulnerable users, while also making sure our guardrails still allow all of our users to benefit from our tools,” Altman said.

Altman continued, calling out Autopilot.

“I only ever rode in a car using it once, some time ago, but my first thought was that it was far from a safe thing for Tesla to have released,” he wrote. “I won’t even start on some of the Grok decisions.”

Altman added: “You take ‘every accusation is a confession’ so far.”

Representatives for Musk and Altman did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

The social media feud comes as the pair is stuck in the middle of a long-running legal battle over OpenAI’s status as a nonprofit company. Musk sued Altman, and other leaders of OpenAI, alleging that they misled him when they decided to pursue a for-profit structure, moving the company away from its original nonprofit mission.

Musk said he donated $38 million to OpenAI when it was originally founded as a nonprofit.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.




Source link

OpenAI-is-turning-to-the-court-of-public-opinion-in.jpeg

OpenAI is turning to the court of public opinion in its battle with Elon Musk

by with No Comment Xpandfy

OpenAI is turning to the court of public opinion as it wages a legal battle with Elon Musk.

While Musk and OpenAI prepare to head to a high-stakes jury trial in April, the two are duking it out online over what exactly happened when Musk split ways with the AI startup he helped cofound.

Musk has been using recently unsealed court documents to attack his rival in posts on his social media platform, X. On Friday, OpenAI published a blog titled “The truth Elon left out.”

The blog, which provided commentary alongside excerpts from several court documents, alleges that Musk wanted “full control” of OpenAI, “since he’d been burned by not having it in the past,” and that OpenAI’s leadership was surprised when Musk suggested having his kids control AGI or artificial general intelligence during conversations about succession planning.

The statements are aimed at the heart of Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI.

Musk is suing OpenAI’s key leaders, including CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman, over allegations that the AI company misled him by shifting away from its core mission to remain a nonprofit. Musk said he donated $38 million to OpenAI when it was a nonprofit.

The startup, since its 2015 founding, operated as a nonprofit-controlled organization with a for-profit operating arm. It completed its transition to a for-profit public benefit corporation in October 2025.

Representatives for Musk and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Last Tuesday, more than 100 documents related to the suit were unsealed, including diary entries from Brockman, which were obtained during the discovery process.

In one of the entries that was highlighted, Brockman appeared to write about his misgivings about pushing Musk out of OpenAI and committing to a nonprofit-only entity.

“Cannot say that we are committed to the non-profit,” the entry from the court documents said. “Don’t want to say that we’re committed. If three months later we’re doing b-corp then it was a lie.”

It was Brockman’s diary entries that US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers cited in a recent ruling, in which she determined Musk had enough evidence that he’d been misled to take the case to trial.




Source link

Elon-Musk-says-Europes-biggest-airline-will-lose-customers-without.jpeg

Elon Musk says Europe’s biggest airline will lose customers without Starlink

by with No Comment Xpandfy

The CEO of Europe’s biggest airline is in an escalating war of words with Elon Musk over Starlink.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary isn’t convinced by Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet provider, which is becoming more popular among airlines.

For example, Lufthansa — the German flag carrier which runs the continent’s second-largest airline group — announced on Tuesday that it would introduce the service. The following day, Scandinavian Airlines operated its first flight with Starlink.

However, as a budget airline, Ryanair is known for its no-frills offering.

“We don’t think ‍our ⁠passengers are willing to pay for WiFi for an average ⁠one-hour flight,” O’Leary told Reuters on Wednesday.

His comments sparked a debate on X. Musk said in a post: “They [Ryanair] will lose customers to airlines that do have internet.”

In a subsequent interview on Irish radio on Thursday, the outspoken Ryanair boss said adding Starlink would cost the airline between $200 million and $250 million a year.

“In other words, about an extra dollar for every passenger we fly, and the reality for us is we can’t afford those costs,” he told Newstalk.

“Passengers won’t pay for internet usage; if it’s free, they’ll use it — but they won’t pay one euro each to use the internet.”

He then hit back at Musk, saying people should “pay no attention whatsoever to Elon Musk.”

“He’s an idiot. Very wealthy, but he’s still an idiot,” O’Leary added.

Ryanair and its subsidiaries operate a fleet of 643 airplanes, which handled 206 million passengers last year. 2024’s statistics showed that it was the world’s third-largest airline group, behind American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

The Irish airline’s low-cost business model allows it to offer tickets as low as 15 euros, or about $17.40. It focuses on quick turnarounds between flights, charging for add-ons like sitting next to your friends, and on-board sales, including scratchcards and duty-free cigarettes.

Every airline that’s announced Starlink deals so far has included free in-flight internet for everyone on board. So, even if O’Leary changed his mind, it seems unlikely that Musk’s company would let him charge Ryanair passengers to use Starlink.

SpaceX executives also took umbrage at what they said was incorrect information about the fuel costs incurred by installing Starlink.

“You need to put [an] antenna on [the] fuselage — it comes with a 2% fuel ⁠penalty because of ​the weight and ​drag,” O’Leary told Reuters.

Michael Nicolls, the VP of Starlink engineering, said in an X post that Starlink terminals have a more fuel-efficient profile than other airplane internet providers. He added that SpaceX’s analysis showed a Starlink terminal instead increased fuel costs by 0.3% on a Boeing 737-800, the model that makes up the bulk of Ryanair’s fleet.

“Hmm, must be a way to get that down under 0.1%,” Musk replied to him.

Ryanair declined to comment on Musk’s and Nicolls’ remarks when contacted by Business Insider. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While US budget airlines have recently pivoted to offer more premium options under intense financial pressures, Ryanair has little reason to do so. Adding an amenity like Starlink would be at odds with its business model, especially if it were free for passengers.

Post-pandemic, more American travellers have been paying extra for more luxurious flights. Budget airlines have also struggled to compete on price with legacy carriers.

But on the other side of the Atlantic, Ryanair has managed to balance a spartan approach with financial success.

In its latest quarterly earnings, Ryanair posted after-tax profits of 1.72 billion euros, about $2 billion — a 20% increase from a year earlier. Southwest Airlines’ latest quarterly earnings were down nearly 20% year-over-year to $54 million.




Source link