Mediaboss Marketing

Elon Musk, after dramatically slashing s headcount following his takeover of the social platform, said the company will try to rehire some of them acknowledging that the job cuts were too deep.

Musk has slashed Twitters headcount by 80%, from 7,800 to about 1,500, as he has attempted to cut costs and get the company in the black. Some people who were let go probably shouldnt have been, Musk said during an interview with CNBC anchor David Faber following the 2023 Tesla annual shareholder meeting Tuesday at the car makers headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Desperate times call for desperate measures Unfortunately, if you do it fast, there are some babies who will be thrown out [with the bathwater], Musk said. Twitter now will probably try to rehire some of the employees that were let go, he said.

Musk spoke about Linda Yaccarino, the ex-NBCUniversal exec he just hired as CEO of Twitter, joining the company, saying that Linda will operate the company and I will build products.

Twitter is very much an advertising-dependent business, and Linda is obviously great at that, Musk said. My skills and interests are in technology.

About the dire financial situation the company was facing, Musk said, It was really a very challenging situation when the Twitter deal closed. He said the company had negative $3 billion cash flow and just $1 billion in cash on hand. After Twitters board fought Musks takeover bid, it took him to court to hold him to the terms of his offer: Basically they had a gun to my head saying, No, you must acquire us!'

Faber asked Musk about the tech moguls tweets that lend credence to conspiracy theories, including Musks Monday evening tweet in which he said, Soros reminds me of Magneto, likening billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros to Marvels Jewish supervillain from the X-Men series. Musk claimed that Soros does not have good intentions: He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity. (Musks comments about Soros drew a rebuke from Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Soros often is held up by the far-right, using antisemitic tropes, as the source of the worlds problems, Greenblatt wrote on Twitter. To see @ElonMusk, regardless of his intent, feed this segment comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming Soros hates humanity is not just distressing, its dangerous: it will embolden extremists who already contrive anti-Jewish conspiracies and have tried to attack Soros and Jewish communities as a result.)

In the CNBC interview, Faber asked Musk why he would share such an opinion about Soros, given that Twitter advertisers or Tesla owners may object to it. This is freedom of speech Im allowed to say what I want, Musk replied. People are calling you an antisemite for the Soros comment, Faber said. Musk said he is not an antisemite, adding, Im like a pro-semite, if anything.

Faber continued to press the point: Do your tweets hurt [Tesla]? Or are there advertisers on Twitter [for which] Linda Yaccarino will come [to you] and say, You gotta stop. I cant get these ads because of some of the things you tweet? Musk, after a pause, said, You know, Im reminded of a scene in The Princess Bride, great movie, where [Mandy Patinkins character, Inigo Montoya] confronts the person who kills his father. And he says, Offer me money. Offer me power. I dont care.'

Faber responded, So you just dont care. Musk replied, Ill say what I want to say, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.

On Friday (May 12), the mega-billionaire announced that he hired Yaccarino, formerly head of ad sales at NBCUniversal, as CEO. Yaccarino, slated to start at Twitter by the end of June, on Saturday tweeted about the appointment, Thank you @elonmusk! Ive long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. Im excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!

At Twitter, Yaccarino will head up business operations, including ad sales, while Musk will remain executive chair and CTO, overseeing product, software and system operations. Musk, of course, will remain sole owner and decision-maker about Twitter. Hes also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX; Musk told Faber that he gets about six hours of sleep per night.

Twitters ad revenue, according to Musk, plummeted by as much as 50%after he closed the takeover in October 2022. Musk has valued Twitter at $20 billion, less than half the $44 billion price tag when he bought it.

Advertisers have been skittish about Musks mercurial decisions in running Twitter, as well as his sometimes bizarre tweets. That includes the decision by Musk a self-described free-speech absolutist to reinstate thousands of formerly banned Twitter accounts, including Donald Trumps. And Musk, claiming he wanted to democratize the previously corrupt blue check-mark system, partially eliminated Twitters legacy verification program; the company now grants any paying Twitter Blue subscriber a verified check-mark.

In his CNBC appearance, Musk said, Weve lost some advertisers on Twitter because of Community Notes, the platforms crowdsourced fact-checking system, when an inaccuracy has been appended to an advertisers post using Community Notes and they get mad and stop advertising.

During the roughly one-hour interview, Musk discussed Teslas business he said the company will start running advertising after historically shunning it and that its cars likely will achieve autonomous driving later in 2023 and spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX.

Twitter recently has been in the headlines afterTucker Carlson, following his ouster at Fox News, claimed he will launch a version of his cable show on the platform. Musk shortly afterward tweeted that Twitter does not have a deal of any kind whatsoever with Carlson and that he is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators. Carlson was informed by one of Fox Corp.s board members that his ouster was a condition of Fox News $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Variety reported. Fox News is still paying Carlsons $20 million annual salary; if the network tries to block Carlson from launching the show on Twitter, the host is prepared to sue Fox News or watch the network implode attempting to challenge free speech, a source told Variety.

See the rest here:

Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Try to Rehire Some of the 6,300 Employees He Fired, Defends Comparing Soros to Magneto - Variety

Walter Isaacson, who has written critically acclaimed biographies of Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin and more, will release his next tome, focused on Elon Musk on September 12.

More from Fortune: 5 side hustles where you may earn over $20,000 per yearall while working from home Looking to make extra cash? This CD has a 5.15% APY right now Buying a house? Here's how much to save This is how much money you need to earn annually to comfortably buy a $600,000 home

Simon & Schuster has started taking preorders for the 688-page book that, based on the preview the publisher offered, seems to offer a sympathetic look at the controversial owner of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies, the books Website reads. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.

That childhood, the publisher says, left a lasting impact on Musks psyche, turning him into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

Musk and Isaacson agreed to work together on the bio in 2021and Musk Tweeted news of the book roughly 20 minutes after they had spoken, before Isaacsons agent was even aware. (In that same thread, Musk did not rule out writing his own autobiography one day.)

Isaacson spent the next two years attending meetings with Musk, speaking with his friends, family and rivals, and shadowing him as he went about his day.

At the beginning of last year, Simon & Schuster says, as he was secretly buying shares of Twitter, Musk told Isaacson: I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life.

Story continues

Isaacson previously previewed the book in an interview with Kara Swisher and indicated Musks childhood would be an overriding them in his exploration of the entrepreneur.

We start the book with this astonishingly difficult childhood in South Africa with a father who is Darth Vader and who still is still alive, but haunts Elon every day, he said.

He also indicated he was braced for criticism about how Musk is portrayed.

[Hes] the most interesting person on the planet right now doing the most interesting things and driving people crazy in the process, said Isaacson. And Im just there to tell a narrative story that helps you understand it. It explains why things happened. And therell be people who say, Oh, you explained it, so you are justifying this or that or the other. Im gonna get a lot of that.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

More from Fortune: 5 side hustles where you may earn over $20,000 per yearall while working from homeLooking to make extra cash? This CD has a 5.15% APY right nowBuying a house? Here's how much to saveThis is how much money you need to earn annually to comfortably buy a $600,000 home

Excerpt from:

Walter Isaacsons Elon Musk biography will hit the streets in September - Yahoo Finance

Advertisement

Elon Musks presentation at this years Tesla Shareholder Meeting did not pass without mentioning the companys humanoid robot, Optimus.

Tesla introduced the idea of making a humanoid robot around two years ago. Since then, the company is constantly sharing progress updates at major events like AI Day, Investor Day, and Shareholder Meetings.

Tesla Bot (Optimus) was the last item on Elon Musks presentation at the Shareholder Meeting on Tuesday. Musk discussed Optimus in more detail compared to other products like the Cybertruck and the next-gen Tesla car which he went through briefly.

Tesla also shared a video of the Optimus development progress before Elon Musks remarks (watch below). This video shows Tesla Bot performing various maneuvers inside the companys robot lab and around the Fremont factory.

Teslas long-term value will be Optimus

The interesting thing about Optimus is not just the improvements in its maneuverability, Tesla now has multiple prototypes of the robot. We can see at least 5 Tesla humanoid robots in the progress update video above.

These Optimus bots moving in synchronization means that Tesla is able to control multiple robots simultaneously. Connected to the same neural network (NN), they are able to see the world similarly. But at the same time are able to perform tasks in sync and individually as well.

The Tesla Bot update video shows how Optimus is gaining new physical abilities with time. The Optimus robots we saw at the 2023 Shareholder Meeting are somewhat a middle version of Bumble-C and the Gen 1 Tesla Bot. Bumble C was the first working Tesla Bot prototype that the company showed at last years AI Day.

At AI Day 2022, the production-intent Optimus robot Tesla showed was not able to walk on its own. Instead, the working prototype Bumble-C demonstrated its abilities. In a period of a little more than 6 months, Tesla has significantly improved Optimus.

Tesla Bot has now gained physical abilities like walking, grabbing objects, sensing softer objects, and applying limited force using motor torque control (the egg demo in the video).

But the most important ability Optimus has is the Tesla Vision AI. It can discover and see its surroundings in the same way a Tesla car can. Because a Tesla Bot and a Tesla vehicle both are connected to the same neural network and have the same FSD computer installed in them.

So, what this means is that whatever a Tesla vehicle learns, Tesla Bot automatically acquires that ability. Ultimately, whenever Full Self-Driving (FSD) is achieved, a Tesla humanoid robot will also be capable of driving a Tesla car and Elon Musk thinks its possible.

As Full Self-Driving gets closer and closer to generalized world AI, that same software is transferrable to a humanoid robot, just like you know humans can walk around with their arms and legs but we can drive a car, fly a plane, steer a boat, ride a horse, Elon Musk said during his Tesla Bot presentation.

If you have a generalized understanding or if you have generalized real-world AI, which is what were developing for Full Self-Driving, it can be transferred to basically anything, Musk added to emphasize the significance of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the goal of Tesla with FSD cars and the Tesla Bot.

Elon Musk thinks that the majority of people today are not able to comprehend the impact of a humanoid that is equipped with generalized AI or AGI.

In his last Tesla Bot presentation at AI Day 2022, Elon Musk explained that the humanoid-to-human ratio can exceed 1:1. He also pressed this at the Shareholder Meeting on Tuesday. He said this ratio can even exceed 2:1 (a human owning 2 robots).

If this happens in the future, the number of humanoid robots will exceed the human population, at least in Musks hypothesis it will. Heres what he said in his talk:

If you have had a generalized humanoid robot, what would be the effective ratio of humanoid robots to humans? Because I think basically everybody would want one and people would want more than one. Which means the actual demand for something like Optimus, if it really works which will, is, I dont know, I mean 10 billion units.

Its some crazy number, it might be 20 billion units if the ratio is 2:1. A number vastly in excess of cars, so my prediction is that Teslas long-term value will be Optimus and that prediction Im very confident of.

There is just one precaution we need to have with AGI and humanoid robots, and that is to not end up with a Terminator scenario.

Now, obviously, we need to make sure that we dont have a Terminator scenario, thats very important. Its all fun and games until Terminator shows up, Elon Musk said.

Let us know your thoughts on humanoid robots and the future of humanity in the comments section below.

Stay tuned for constant Tesla updates, follow us on:Google News|Flipboard|RSS (Feedly).

The rest is here:

Teslas future is the Optimus humanoid robot, not cars predicts Elon Musk - Tesla Oracle - Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX News

The Tesla Inc. Gigafactory stands in Shanghai, China, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019.

Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that people ought to be worried about tension between the U.S. and China.

The comments come a year after President Joe Biden said the U.S. would be prepared to defend Taiwan if the Asian island off the Chinese coast were to be attacked. China believes Taiwan is part of its territory.

In an interview Tuesday following Tesla's annual shareholder meeting, CNBC's David Faber asked Musk if he was concerned about "the growing belligerence" between the U.S. and China.

"I think that should be a concern for everyone," replied Musk, who was born in South Africa and became a U.S. citizen in 2002.

Faber asked Musk if China will make a move to take control of Taiwan. "The official policy of China is that Taiwan should be integrated," Musk said. "One does not need to read between the lines."

When asked if China moving to control Taiwan would be bad for Tesla, or other companies, Musk said: "The Chinese economy and the rest of the global economy are like conjoined twins. It would be like trying to separate conjoined twins. That's the severity of the situation. And it's actually worse for a lot of other companies that it is for Tesla. I mean, I'm not sure where you're going to get an iPhone, for example."

Apple announced in September that it had begun assembling the iPhone 14 in India as it sought to reduce manufacturing reliance on China. Tesla manufactures vehicles in Shanghai, and it operates other factories in California, Texas and Germany.

"There are some constraints on our ability to expand in China, and so we're making as many cars as we can," Musk said. "It's not a demand issue."

He said Tesla depend on Taiwan Semiconductor to produce processors. Apple does as well.

Faber asked Musk if he thinks it's inevitable that China would seek to take control of Taiwan.

"That is their policy, and I think you should take their word seriously," Musk said.

WATCH: Tesla CEO Elon Musk on U.S.-China tensions: There is some 'inevitability' to Taiwan situation

See the rest here:

Elon Musk says tension between U.S. and China 'should be a concern for everyone' - CNBC

Elon Musk spent $44 billion on Twitter last year, ostensibly in a bid to preserve free speech, but the CEO's actions appear to have alienated some of the social network's user base, especially women and Black Twitter users.

Six in 10 Americans who used Twitter in the last 12 months have taken a breather of several weeks or more during the year, according to new data(Opens in a new window) from the Pew Research Center.

There are "especially pronounced differences by gender, race and ethnicity" when it comes to those departures, Pew finds. Women (69%) and Black users (67%) are more likely than male (54%), white (60%), or Hispanic (54%) folks to have taken a hiatus from Twitter.

Pew found no significant differences by age or political affiliation when it comes to leaving the platform. Data it released earlier this month, however, noted that political divides have only deepened since Musk took over the platform, with Republican and Republican-leaning Twitter users now more likely to say that Twitter is mostly good for democracy, while Democrats have gone in the opposite direciton.

Pew didn't ask why people took a breather, but it's been chaotic at Twitter in recent months. "These findings come amid debates in the media and even questions posed by Musk himself about whether Twitter is 'dying,'" says Pew Research Analyst Michelle Faverio. "Since Musk acquired the platform, some celebrities have publicly announced their departures from the site and popular accounts have reported abnormally large gains and losses in followers, among other changes."

Those numbers will likely remain in flux as the company welcomes Linda Yaccarino, former head of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, as its new CEO. Her advertising connections are needed at Twitterwhich lost a host of advertisers last year when Musk stripped down content moderations systems, phased out legacy blue checkmarks, and allowed previously banned users back on the platform.

Pew surveyed people before Yaccarino's appointment, and found that 35% are unsure whether they'll still use Twitter in a year; a quarter plan to quit the platform altogether. Musk isn't going anywhere: he'll stay on as Twitter's chair and chief technology officer.

Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning.

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.

Read the rest here:

People Are Spending Less Time on Twitter Since Elon Musk Took ... - PCMag