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by Oliver Bateman
Tuesday, 18
April 2023
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07:15

Elon Musk attacks Facebook for Democratic bias

The CEO said money spent on 'get out the vote' campaigns was political
by Oliver Bateman
Elon Musk told Tucker Carlson that he wanted a middle-of-the-road leader

Elon Musk has criticised Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for spending $400 million on “get out the vote” campaigns, which he argued was a front for funding the Democrats. “Does that sound unbiased?” Musk asked. In an interview with Tucker Carlson that aired on Monday night, he emphasised the importance of free speech on platforms like his and Facebook’s, arguing that they had a duty in a functioning democracy. “Some things are priceless,” he said. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy…[and] the speech needs to be as transparent and truthful as possible.”

Musk also shared his concerns about the state of Twitter before his acquisition, feeling that the platform was “drifting in a bad direction” and that the previous management did not care about improving its features or performance, only censoring it. He told Carlson that Twitter’s staff is now 20% of what it was before he took over, arguing that it was overstaffed for what he calls “a group text service at scale”.

In the course of their discussion, Musk expressed his fears about AI development. He spoke with regret about his efforts in recruiting the OpenAI team, highlighting his concerns about the organisation becoming closed-source, for-profit, and closely allied with Microsoft. With Google DeepMind now another dominant player, Musk stated his intention to create a third option in the AI landscape. 

Despite starting late, Musk hopes that a new project led by him, which he tentatively called TruthGPT, could do more good than harm by focusing on understanding the universe, rather than just being “politically correct”. Drawing a parallel between humans and chimpanzees — a species that humans could conceivably wipe out, but choose not to — the Twitter CEO argued that an AI trained to value understanding the universe is less likely to pose a threat to humanity. The big questions in terms of AI development, he told Carlson, come down to: “will humanity control its destiny or not? Will humanity control its future or not?” 

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Brendan O'Leary
Brendan O'Leary
7 months ago

The media seem very uncomfortable with Musk being his own man and not particularly biased.

Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle
7 months ago

Let’s encourage Musk to buy Facebook as well.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
7 months ago

I think if you look back at the headlines following the 2016 election it looks like media organizations like Bookface came under substantial pressure for the apparatus of state to toe the Democratic line under threat of regulatory intervention

Andrew F
Andrew F
7 months ago

Partially true.
But most of their staff are censorious, woke, little pr**ks or some mentally ill transbolix creatures.
Apart from top management who are there to create media wars (and make mega money).
To distract woke slaves from noticing that their lot is much worse than their parents.
Poor but virtuous….
Brain dead sheep…

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
7 months ago
Reply to  Andrew F

I do not disagree with you, but they were given a green light

Gerald Arcuri
Gerald Arcuri
7 months ago

Elon Musk is right. He’s the John Wayne of social media. A straight-shooter.

Julian Pellatt
Julian Pellatt
7 months ago

People like Zuckerberg are at the forefront of the cultural marxist revolution that is hell bent on destroying western civilisation. Thankfully there are still a few influential individuals like Elon Musk who are strong enough, intellectually, morally and financially, to stand up and challenge the Woking Class.

Ian S
Ian S
7 months ago

.

Last edited 7 months ago by Ian Steadman
Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
7 months ago

4 failed marriages and named his kid after a squiggle. Don’t see what all the fuss is about

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
7 months ago

Musk is still a t**t though

Rocky Martiano
Rocky Martiano
7 months ago
Reply to  Frank McCusker

Frank, do some research about the man before launching nonsense, ad hominem attacks. His YouTube interview by Lex Fridman is a good place to start.

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
7 months ago

If I had to choose between Trump and Biden, I’d go for Biden too. Although that is the very definition of having to choose between plague and cholera.

AC Harper
AC Harper
7 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

But the key question is *if* the choice of the next President was between a bombastic Trump and a cognitively challenged Biden – which bad choice would you make? Now that you have seen both in ‘action’.

Last edited 7 months ago by AC Harper
Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle
7 months ago
Reply to  AC Harper

Would that be a ‘get the dope out’ campaign?

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
7 months ago
Reply to  AC Harper

Still Biden. And promptly fall into a deep depression because out of 300 million people, the US has managed to front up only a man obviously in serious cognitive decline and a raging, delusional narcissist as presidential candidates.

Last edited 7 months ago by Katharine Eyre
Dougie Undersub
Dougie Undersub
7 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

I don’t know enough about US domestic politics to comment on that aspect of Trump’s presidency. But on foreign policy, whatever you might think of his personal oafishness, he got a lot of big calls right.
Pulling out of the Paris Agreement, cancelling the Iran nuclear deal, telling the European members of NATO to pay more for their own defence, telling Germany it was over-dependent on Russian gas, engaging with N Korea, facilitating deals between Israel and several of it’s Arab neighbours. Quite a lot to like there, especially when compared with Biden’s multiple foreign policy disasters.

Andrew F
Andrew F
7 months ago

Exactly.
If you compare Trump actual policies and achievents with not just Biden but Obama and Clinton and young Bush, he is way ahead.
Let’s remember as well that he called out China for various abuses.

Andrew F
Andrew F
7 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

And you fail to see that Biden might be a candidate because, supposedly sensible, people like you think he is better than Trump?
OK, Trump is boorish but his comments and actions on many big issues were correct.

Mass illigal immigration from South America?
Too much dependence on Russian energy by Europe?
Europe expecting USA to pay for their defence.

List is much longer…

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
7 months ago
Reply to  AC Harper

US standing up for Ukraine and US economy doing well. As opposed to a perma-pouting TV chat show host who hero-worships his “genius” Putin.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
7 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

It is not the person but what they represent that matters, so Trump wins hands down

Andrew D
Andrew D
7 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

This seems reasonable, not sure why you’re getting the downvotes

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
7 months ago
Reply to  Andrew D

Because the downvoters don’t likely get their information solely from CNN or MSNBC, who constantly yammer on that Trump is the antichrist, and not what he actually stands for.

Andrew D
Andrew D
7 months ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

I don’t think he’s the antichrist, just a rather preposterous narcissist