TESLA and Elon Musk - anything not elsewhere

[Gregg]

So, Elmo says Twitter is "now roughly breaking even".

Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say it nets $1 million profit. Also assuming that he he has destroyed, by his own accounts, $22 billion in value, he'll be able to earn his investment back in just 2200 years.

He's a genius I tell ya.

[RTH10260]

Elon Musk reportedly planning to launch AI rival to ChatGPT maker
Tesla and Twitter boss said to be bringing together team, weeks after co-signing letter demanding pause in AI research

Miranda Bryant
Sat 15 Apr 2023 12.16 BST

Elon Musk is reportedly planning to launch an artificial intelligence company to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, as Silicon Valley battles for dominance in the rapidly developing technology.

The billionaire boss of Tesla and Twitter is in the process of bringing together a team of AI researchers and engineers and is in talks with several investors about the project, according to the Financial Times.

“A bunch of people are investing in it …  it’s real and they are excited about it,” a person with knowledge of the talks told the newspaper, which cited Nevada business records showing that on 9 March Musk incorporated a company called X.AI of which he is the company’s sole director.

The move, which would mean him joining tech giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon and startups including OpenAI in the fast-changing generative AI space, appears to signal a rapid change of direction. Only a few weeks ago Musk co-signed a letter in which he and more than 1,800 others demanded a six-month pause in AI research. It later emerged that some of the signatories were fake.

In company filings, Musk recently changed the name of Twitter to X Corp. The move was part of his plans to make an “everything app” branded “X”.

His business portfolio includes Twitter, Tesla, rocket maker SpaceX, neurotechnology research company Neuralink and his tunnelling project, The Boring Company.

On Friday, SpaceX was issued with a Starship launch licence, clearing the way for the first flight test of the new rocket, potentially on Monday.

For the new AI project, Musk has reportedly got thousands of high-powered GPU processors and is also said to have recruited engineers from leading AI labs, such as DeepMind.

Musk’s new startup is likely to enable him to attempt to compete with OpenAI, which Musk co-founded in 2015. He left the board after three years, reportedly as a result of clashes with management, including over AI safety.

He tweeted in 2019: “Tesla was competing for some of the same people as OpenAI & I didn’t agree with some of what OpenAI team wanted to do.”

Soon after, it became a for-profit startup and secured a $1bn investment from Microsoft. It has since attracted growing criticism from Musk over the potential existential threats generative AI may pose.

He has said he is especially concerned about the capability of models such as GPT-4, the latest release by OpenAI, to spread false information and demonstrate political bias.




https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... val-openai

[Phoenix520]

Anything you can do I can do better
I am do anything better than you
No you can’t!
Yes I can!

Elmo’s going to reinvent the whole world. In his image.

[Suranis]

Elmo is getting jealous of all the attention, so he announced something he isn't working on as he is full of shit.

[neonzx]

So, Elmo says Twitter is "now roughly breaking even".

That is essentially what my family/friends say after going to Las Vegas. "about even"

[Gregg]

Only a few weeks ago Musk co-signed a letter in which he and more than 1,800 others demanded a six-month pause in AI research. It later emerged that some of the signatories were fake.

So he can catch up.

[tek]

[Phoenix520]

Does he think we can’t see him?

[neeneko]

Anything you can do I can do better
I am do anything better than you
No you can’t!
Yes I can!

Elmo’s going to reinvent the whole world. In his image.

Or he is trying to grift some investment dollars. It remains to be seen how much actual revenue can be generated form these new models, and there remains serious questions about how profitable they might be since the main economic gain from AI has been advertising and recommendation systems.. two areas they are likely seeing diminishing returns on. Everywhere else it has been good for sucking in grants and VC money, but pretty terrible at anything else.

[RTH10260]

Is Elon Musk creating a utopian city? The hellish, heavenly history of company towns
The Tesla founder has broken ground on a plot in Texas, while Google and Meta are building workers’ homes in California. Should we be celebrating or worrying?

Steve Rose
Tue 18 Apr 2023 10.00 BST

Welcome to Snailbrook, Texas. Established: 2021. Population: about 12, but with many more to come. In fact, in a decade or two, Snailbrook could be a gleaming, utopian city, shaped by the futuristic vision of the unavoidable tech titan of our day, Elon Musk.

Musk is moving into Texas big time. According to reports, he has quietly bought as many as 2,430 hectares (6,000 acres) in the Austin area – where his core business, Tesla, has been headquartered since 2021 – upon which factories and facilities are under construction for the rocket company SpaceX and the tunnelling company Boring (whose mascot is a snail, hence the town’s name). Now, Musk is adding housing for workers (which reportedly will be more affordable to rent than that in Austin) and Boring executives are talking of building an entire city. Should we be celebrating or worrying?

Corporation-built towns tend to go one of two ways: heavenly or hellish, but usually the second. On the one hand, companies want to build a place that attracts and nurtures its employees; on the other, they want to minimise overheads and squeeze as much out of their captive townsfolk as they can get away with.

Overriding all of this is the temptation for the founders (almost always white men) to build monuments to themselves and rule like dictators. Given Musk’s reputation for impulsive heavy-handedness and extreme attention-seeking, this does not bode well. But this is the guy who promises to colonise Mars, so it is worth examining what he is doing down here on Earth.



https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... pany-towns

[tek]

sign me up!
Not.

d-4.jpg (369.64 KiB) Viewed 632 times

[Dave from down under]

Elon wouldn’t build a Bournville

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournville

[Chilidog]

Space x is a fail.

[Chilidog]

“We just experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

[Suranis]

Its went up but stage separation failed.It spun wildly out of control and exploded. You could see guidance rockets going crazy as it turned into a gyrating top. Also, several engines still didn't light from the start which probably unbalanced the thing

Still, it got 38kms up before boom.



Action starts 44 minutes in

There's something very unnatural about the wild cheering and such.

[bill_g]

Let's have a small moment of laughter as Elon blows all his shit up.

hahaha

Thank you

[Dr. Ken]

He means explosion

[Reality Check]

I watched the launch live on the Space X YouTube channel. The Starship seemed to stay on the pad a long time of around 6 seconds after T-0. I suppose that was because it was short 3 engines or about 10% of thrust. The Space X announcers were shilling their asses off to call it a success. I guess the failure was not unexpected for a first full launch.

[chancery]

Did the rocket engines explode on their own, or did the launch crew destroy it?

(All rockets are laced with explosives in case they become uncontrollable.)

[Greatgrey]

[Suranis]

I watched the launch live on the Space X YouTube channel. The Starship seemed to stay on the pad a long time of around 6 seconds after T-0. I suppose that was because it was short 3 engines or about 10% of thrust. The Space X announcers were shilling their asses off to call it a success. I guess the failure was not unexpected for a first full launch.

It was very, very slow going up.

They started cheering it 30 seconds before T-0 as well. Which is bizarre. It felt like a North Korean "Cheer or else" scene.

[Gregg]

Kasey Kassem voiceover

New this week to America's Top 40 a catchy little tune from the band Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly called Rocket Go Boom

[Reality Check]

They started cheering it 30 seconds before T-0 as well. Which is bizarre. It felt like a North Korean "Cheer or else" scene.

Even more bizarre was when they cheered as it blew apart.

[Slim Cognito]

[Sam the Centipede]

It will be the turbopumps. It's always the turbopumps.

Or something else.