Speaking via a video call to the World Government Summit in
Dubai, Musk said making sure the platform can function remained the most
important thing for him.
“I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make
sure it’s in a financial healthy place,” Musk said when asked about when he’d
name a CEO. “I’m guessing probably toward the end of this year would be good
timing to find someone else to run the company.”
Musk, 51, made his wealth initially on the finance website
PayPal, then created the spacecraft company SpaceX and invested in the electric
car company Tesla. In recent months, however, more attention has been focused
on the chaos surrounding his $44 billion purchase of the microblogging site
Twitter.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military’s use of Musk’s satellite
internet service Starlink as it defends itself against Russia’s ongoing
invasion has put Musk off and on at the center of the war.
Musk offered a wide-ranging 35-minute discussion that
touched on the billionaire’s fears about artificial intelligence, the collapse
of civilization and the possibility of space aliens. But questions about
Twitter kept coming back up as Musk described both Tesla and SpaceX as able to
function without his direct, day-to-day involvement.
“Twitter is still somewhat a startup in reverse,” he said.
“There’s work required here to get Twitter to sort of a stable position and to
really build the engine of software engineering.”
Musk also sought to portray his takeover of San
Francisco-based Twitter as a cultural correction.
“I think that the general idea is just to reflect the values
of the people as opposed to imposing the values of essentially San Francisco
and Berkeley, which are so somewhat of a niche ideology as compared to the rest
of the world,” he said. “And, you know, Twitter was, I think, doing a little
too much to impose a niche.”
Musk’s takeover at Twitter has seen mass firings and other
cost-cutting measures. Musk, who is on the hook for about $1 billion in yearly
interest payments for his purchase, has been trying to find way to maximize
profits at the company.
However, some of Musk’s decisions have conflicted with the
reasons that journalists, governments and others rely on Twitter as an
information-sharing platform.
Musk on Wednesday described the need for users to rely on
Twitter for trusted information from verified accounts. However, a confused
rollout to a paid verified account system saw some impersonate famous
companies, leading to a further withdrawal of needed advertising cash to the
site.
“Twitter is certainly quite the rollercoaster,” he
acknowledged.
Forbes estimates Musk’s wealth at just under $200 billion.
The Forbes analysis ranks Musk as the second-wealthiest person on Earth, just
behind French luxury brand magnate Bernard Arnault.
But Musk also has become a thought leader for some as well,
albeit an oracle that is trying to get six hours of sleep a night despite the
challenges at Twitter.
Musk described his children as being “programmed by Reddit
and YouTube.” He warned that artificial intelligence should be regulated “very
carefully,” describing it as akin to the promise of nuclear power but the
danger of atomic bombs. He also cautioned against having a single civilization
or “too much cooperation” on Earth, saying it could “collapse” a society that’s
like a “tiny candle in a vast darkness.”
And asked about the existence of aliens, Musk had a firm
response.
“The crazy thing is, I’ve seen no evidence of alien
technology or alien life whatsoever. And I think I’d know because of SpaceX,”
he said. “I don’t think anybody knows more about space, you know, than me.”