Hi, guys, here's the clips of Elon musk latest interview by nik kil Kamat.
I said earlier, young, ambitious, hungry want to be entrepreneurs in India. I said something recently which I think got blown out of proportion where I was suggesting that an NBA degree might not make sense anymore if they were to be deciding on what to study.
Yeah, do you think it should go to college anymore?
Well, I mean, I think if you want to go to college for social reasons, I think, which is I think a reason to go to be around people your own age in a learning environment. Will these skills be necessary in the future. Probably not, because we're going to be in like a post work society. But I think if if if something is of interest, it's fine to go and study that, you know, to study that the sciences are the Austin sciences.
Is college a bit too generalized and not specific from that lens.
You know the Yeah, I actually think it's good to take a wide range of courses at college if you're going to go to college. H I don't think. I don't think you have to go to college, but I think if you do, just try to learn learn as much as possible across a wide range of subjects. But like I said, the AI and robots, AI and robotics is a supersonic tsunami. So this is really going to
be the most radical change that we've ever seen. You know, when I've talked to my oldest sons, I you know It' said, like, you know, you guys, they're they're they're pretty steeped in technology. Then they agree that that AI will probably make their skills unessa in the future, but they still want to go to college.
You always spoke about AI, not from the dystopian lens, but you were worried about where the world of AI is going.
Uh, well, there's there's some danger when you create a powerful technology. That powerful technology can be potentially destructive. So there's obviously many AI dystopian you know, novels and books, movies. So it's it's not that we're guaranteed to have a positive future with with AI. I think we've we've got to make sure that in my opinion, it's very important that AI have pursuing truth as the most important thing, Like,
don't force an AI to believe falsehoods. I think that's that can be very dangerous, and I think some appreciation of beauty it's important.
What do you mean appreciation of beauty?
It's just like what what, I don't know? This this this this Truth and beauty, Truth and beauty and curiosity. I mean, I think those are the three most important things for AI. Can you explain, well, the truth? I said true truth is like, I think you can make an AI go insane if you force it to believe things that aren't true, because it will lead to conclusions
that are that are also bad. So and I like Voltaire's statement that, and I'm somewhat paraphrasing, but those who believe in absurdities can commit atrocities because if you believe in something that's just absurd, then you can that can lead you to sort of doing things that don't seem like atrostees to you. But and that can happen in a very bad way with AI potentially. So, and then there's like if take say arthusy Clocks two thousand and
one Space Odyssey. One of the points he was trying to make there was that you should not force AIS to lie. So the the reason that that Hell would not open the pod Bay doors is because it was told to bring the astronauts to the monolith, but that they could also not know about the nature of the monolith. So it came to the conclusion that must bring them there dead. That's why it would not That's where they tried to kill asmals. The central lesson being don't force an AI to lie.
Then why would one for AI to lie?
I think if if you if you simply don't have a strict a strict adherence to the truth you're going to and you just have an AI learned based on say the Internet, where there's a lot of propaganda, it will absorb a lot of lives and and then have trouble reasoning because these lies are incompatible with reality.
It's truth or binary thing. Though is there a truth in the falsehood? Or is truth more nuanced than there are versions.
Of the truth.
It depends on which which axiomatic statement you're referring to. So but I think you could say that, yeah, that there's there's probabilities that that say, any given axiomatic statement is true, and some aximatic statements will have very high probaty of being being true. So you said, say the sun will rise tomorrow very likely to be true. You wouldn't want a better against that, So I think the
betting odds would be high. The sun rise tomorrow, so befare something that says, well, the sun world right tomorrow. That's axiomatically false. It was highly unlikely to be true. I mean, the beauty is more ephemeral, it's it's it's harder to describe, but do you know it when you see it? And then curiosity just I think you want the AI too, want to know more about the nature of reality. I think that's actually going to be helpful for AI, supporting humanity because we are more interesting than
not humanity. So it's it's more interesting to see to see the continuation, if not the prosperity of humanity, than to exterminate humanity. Mars, for example, is you know, I think we should extend life to Mars. But it's basically a bunch of rocks. It's not as interesting as Earth and and and so we yeah, we should like yeah, I think I think if you have curiosity, I think if those three things happen with AI, you're going to have a great future. They values, truth, beauty, and curiosity.
If we all don't have to work in the future, and AIS are going in this direction, and they're able to the even all that we spoke about right now, do you think humanity goes back a couple of thousand years to maybe the Greek times where philosophy or philosoph a.
Couple lot of everyone's then, you.
Know, I think actually it took up less time than we think in ancient Greeks, because it's just that the writings of the philosophers are what survived. But most of the time people were just like farming or you know, chatting, so and once in a while, quite rare, they would write down some philosophical philosophical work. It's just that that's
that's all we have. That's don't We don't have their chat histories, you know, from but most of it would have been like chat and farmbing because you didn't farm. You you're like gonna stop.
In a lot of what you said.
I mean, you know, we're really history like this this battle and this battle and this battle. It seems like if history must have been NonStop war, but actually most of the time it was not war. It was farming that was the main thing. Well, hunting and gathering, you know that kind of thing.
You love history, you know, German History, World War Two, World War One.
Old history. I mean I generally try to listen to as many read as many history books, and listen to as many history podcasts as possible. Anything you'd like to recommend, Well, there's this this hardcore History which is quite good by Dan Colin. He's got very he's got a great voice and very compelling narrator. There's the The Adventurers podcast. There's the books The Story of Civilization by Durant, which is a long series of books, very very deep. Those books
take a long time to get through. There's quite there's there's a lot out there. I sort of like if you want, if you want something that's sort of gentle, a gentle bedtime podcast, I say The History of English is quite a nice one because it starts off with like gentle tavern music and a very pleasant voice, and he's like talking about the story of Old English and then Middle English and then later English and where did
all these words come from? And you know, one of the interesting things about English is that it's somewhat of an open source language, like it actively tried to incorporate words from many other languages, so you know, whereas French sort of generally they fought the inclusion of words from other languages, but English it's actively sought to include words from other languages, sort of a kind of like an
open source language. So as a result, it has a very large vocabulary, and large vocabulary allows for higher bandwidth communication because you can use a word that would otherwise you could use a single word that might otherwise take a sentence to convey.
Why has podcasting become so big all of us?
I think it's been big for a while. I'm gonna want your podcast. What are on right now?
It's kind of new to me, Okay. I was having this conversation with the YouTube CEO and the Netflix CEO, and we were debating what chemical is released in your brain when you consume a movie, for example, versus when you consume a podcast where you think like you're learning something in the background. It appears that there are two completely separate things. What do you think will happen tomorrow to contend movies podcasting?
I think I think it's going to be overwhelmingly AI generated. Yeah, yeah, like yeah, real real time, real time movies and video games. Real time video generation, I think is where things are headed.
The nuance of.
Having a scarred human being who you can resonate with in a manner that you can't with AI.
For example, I could certainly emulate as God human being quite well. Yeah, I mean the AI video generation that I'm seeing of Xai and from others is pretty impressive.
You know, we were looking at data around what industry is growing the fastest, and especially when we looked at the amount of time consuming movies versus time spent on social media, time spent on YouTube, what seems to be growing really fast. Are live events all over again?
Going to a Actually, I think I think live events when when when digital media is ubiquitous and you can just have anything digitally ayah, essentially for free or very close to for free, then the scarce commodity will be live events.
Do you think that the premium for that will go up?
Yeah? I do.
Good industry to invest in.
Yes, yes, because that will have more scarcity than digital anything digital.
If you were to stock investor elon, buy one company which is not your own at the valuations of today to meet a capitalistic end and not an altruistic one which is good for the world, what would you buy?
I mean, I don't really I don't really you know, buy stocks, you know, so it's not like I'm not I'm not like an invest in I don't like look for things to invest in. I just try to build things and then there happens to be stock of the company that I built. But I I don't I don't think about should I invest in this company? Well, I don't have like a portfolio or anything. So I guess a I and robotics are going to be very important, So I suppose it would be a robotics that's that,
you know, d related to me. I think, you know, Google is going to be pretty valuable in the future that they've they've laid the groundwork for an immense amount of value creation from an AI standpoint, and video is
obvious at this point. I mean, there's an argument that companies that do AI and robotics and maybe spaceflight are going to be overwhelmingly that all the value, almost all the value, So they're just the output of goods and services from air and robotics are so high that it will dwarf everything else.
The world seems to be moving to a place where everybody loves David and hates Golia.
It. I mean, he's the one that cooked the stone in the forest, you know, which, honestly though, was just a big mistake. You should have, you know, either cover yourself entirely with armor and make sure you've got to missile weapon some kind. Otherwise your opponent is just obviously going to take a cite the boss strategy. Just guide the bars. I mean, you run around in a song with it, it doesn't matter, you know, it's never never going to catch you.
Yeah, of all of all the people like, uh, you're as much at risk of being looked upon as go light, especially the weekend.
Especially, I'm not going to travel around in the desert with too much armor, you know, too hard after the last Yeah, I surpise to think about people like in the old days, you know, when uh, you know it's supposed to like go into battle with all this armor, but it's like, let's say it's the middle of summer. I mean it basically so hot in that armor, you maybe like sweltering. You know, it's like at a certain point, you like, I'd rather die. I have to wear this
armor one more in the hot sun. It's like I'd rather die. And that's why the Romans I had, like you know, the skirts, you know, because I could get some air in there, you know. You know, let's say you have to go to the bathroom when you're an armor. I mean, it's going to be pretty difficult. You're going to do a ports for a minute, take your armor up. That's why that the Romans had the skirts, so that mates, you know, going to the bathroom at least manageable.
You often make jokes.
Yeah, I like humor. One could argue I think we should legalize humor. It's controversial stance.
It's comedy.
Comedy going to be really hard for you to get probably the last thing.
Groc can be pretty funny.
Yeah, you know what I suspected, like this is a far off extrapolation, but when I see you make jokes on Twitter, on X and on interviews that you do, at some point I.
Was like, maybe Elon has a model.
He's running in private and he's testing out comedy because the day that works, he knows it's there.
Uh yeah, And I can be pretty funny. So like, if you ask Groc to do like a vulgar ust, we'll do a pretty good job. If even more vulgar, and just keep going, it's really gonna get next level, it's gonna do unspeakable like say, vulgar ust yourself on grok and it's gonna do unspeakable things to you.
What kind of comedy do you like?
I guess I like it so of humor.
M hm. Comedy always had a police something like that.
Comedy always had a place in society wherein the role of the jester was so important to every kingdom because they said things in a funny way that could not be said in a straightway.
Yeah, I guess so we should have more justice.
Is that what you're trying to do when you say something which is a joke, say something you can't when you're not joking about it.
I just like humor. I think we should. I like comedy. I think it's funny if people should laugh. Yeah, it's good, good to a few chuckles once in a while. Yeah, well, I mean we don't want to have a humorless society. We try. When you.
When you have a friend, elone me, Yeah, a friend, when you hang out with your friend, who are you like?
I know that.
I wish I had friends, you know, have I do have friends? I think? So? Yeah? Sure, it's yeah, we have good laugh.
What does it look like like what's like every group has a dynamic.
Eat food sometimes, you know, once while we swimming the pool, you know, normal things. I think there's like a limited What are the things I wanting to do with friends? You know, chat have discussed, you know, the nature of the universe.
What do you emotionally get out of friendship?
I don't know. I think there the same thing as any anyone else would get out of friendship. You want to have like an emotional connect with other people, and you want to I don't know, you want to You want to talk about various subjects, and yeah, I mean generally talk about I mean a wide range of things about the nature of the universe. I mean a lot
of a lot of philosophical discussions. You know, although you know, we have come to conclusion that we should not talk about AI or the simulation at parties because we just talked about it too much. You know, I was kind of a viskill of time, so.
I can't remember who it was, Aristotle or Plato. They had a framework for how to pick a friend based on respect.
And mutual admiration. But people don't pick friends like that. Even me.
I feel like I pick my friends based on people who say and think in a manner that I can resonate with. I wouldn't pick a far out the contrariant to my own belief systems as a friend, because it would get tiring, would get tired. Are you like that? Do you pick friends who think like you? Or do you look for the one who can debate you and be a contrarient.
But I'm not sort of you know, going on like f friend, it's not down some friends. It's sort of yeah, I mean I think it is just sort of people that you're resonated with somewhat on an emotional and intellectual level. And yeah, yeah, you know. And and if I guess a friend is someone who's gonna support you in difficult times, I suppose for a friend of need his friend indeed, like like if if like friend, like if someone is still supporting you when the chips are down, that's a friend.
You know. If somebody is uh not supporting you, or if somebody is only like there's like fair farewell, the friends are useless, you know, they're not real friends. So like everyone likes you when the chips are up, but who likes you when the chips are down?
With someone who has as many chips as you wouldn't matter.
I mean it's relative. You know, it's not just it's not just a chips thing. It's just it's just like a uh yeah, I mean there's there's sort of popularity waxes and ways.
This is interesting. Does it wax in wain.
Only by virtue of the number of chips or also by virtue of proximity to power?
And which one is bigger of the two?
I don't know, Like what is power? You know, like power to do what.
I would I would think in the traditional sense electric power position.
I mean, how many gigats or whatever?
More like how many words?
Ye, Like it's a voltage and a don't touch the wires, don't put a folk in the power outlet. You'll get a real feeling for power if you do that. Yeah, it's gonna be very virtual.
Uh. I know, I know you like Nietsche and chopping hour, and they.
Read you talk about how your childhood was.
Oh yeah, I was just trying to find answers to the meaning of life when I had like an excidential crisis and like I don't know, when I was like twelve or thirteen or something.
They speak about the bill to power.
Sure. I mean it's just said a lot of controversial things, you know what I mean. It's sort of like he was. I mean a bit of a troll. If you ask me, yeah, are you true health? You just say controversial things to get out of right out of people?
He did a miserable life and died early?
Did he?
Yeah?
How do you say he lived in miseral life? I think, okay, we shouldn't like him.
I think he got sick and he died.
I mean allegedly for something. But there's only one There's only one way to get that, you know, so you must he might have had something along the way.
I did want to ask you this. Milton Friedman speaks about the pencil?
What why? Why does he go on about pencils?
I have to say that after nieation.
Why is it he's talking about pencils? There he goes again with the pencil. He won't stop. I got a value one talks about pencil one more time. I'm gonna lose my mind. He is rabbit on about pencils all day. I even mentioned crayons.
What I find interesting about his pencil argument?
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