On Tuesday, Elon Musk announced that the appointment of a new CEO for Twitter will allow him to spend more time focusing on Tesla. However, he emphasized that he will continue to express his opinions freely on the platform, regardless of the financial implications for his businesses.
“I don’t care,” Musk stated in a CNBC interview when asked about the potential impact of his controversial tweets on Tesla’s stock prices or advertising revenue for Twitter. “I’ll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”
Linda Yaccarino, who was recently named as Musk’s successor as CEO of Twitter, is acknowledged as a prominent media and advertising executive. Musk noted her expertise, saying, “Twitter is very much an advertising business; Linda is obviously incredible at that and she’s just a great executive in general.” He added, “Linda will operate a company and I will build products.”
Since acquiring Twitter in late October, Musk has been a polarizing figure, making waves by laying off a significant portion of the workforce, reinstating previously banned accounts, suspending journalists, and introducing fees for services that were once free. These actions have unsettled advertisers, many of whom have departed the platform over concerns about their brands being linked to problematic content.
Additionally, Musk has facilitated the return of former President Donald Trump to Twitter, although Trump has opted to communicate via his own platform rather than reengage with Twitter. Musk indicated that if Trump decides to post misinformation regarding the 2020 election, Twitter’s “community notes” feature would allow users to flag false claims. Musk himself does not subscribe to the belief that the election was “stolen,” a claim made by Trump.
Despite Musk’s declarations supporting free speech and his critiques of content moderation practices surrounding the election, Twitter recently acknowledged capitulating to pressure from the Turkish government to remove certain content before elections held over the weekend. “We received what we believed to be a final threat to throttle the service — after several such warnings,” the company stated, highlighting a perceived contradiction in their approach. “And so, in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend, we took action on four accounts and 409 Tweets identified by court order.”
While returning to Tesla, Musk plans to concentrate on advancements in artificial intelligence, an area the company already utilizes for its self-driving technology. He expressed optimism, projecting that Tesla will experience a transformative moment akin to ChatGPT, signaling significant developments in AI for autonomous driving within the next year.
Musk also took credit for the inception of OpenAI, asserting that he invested approximately $50 million in the organization initially and coined its name. “I am the reason OpenAI exists,” he remarked, referencing the influential AI chatbots that have sparked both excitement and concern regarding the future of artificial intelligence.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
