On Wednesday local time, the world's richest man Musk continued to attend a series of public events in Cannes, France, to attract customers for his social media platform X. Faced with a group of advertising professionals, he didn't forget to talk about his current career in AI and robotics.
Firstly, it should be noted that Musk has been participating in an event called the Cannes Lion International Creative Festival in recent days, which attracts approximately tens of thousands of executives from large brands, advertising platforms, and advertising agents each year. As the owner of social media X, Musk urgently needs to open up new financial avenues for his own social media platform after a public breakup with a group of wealthy individuals at the end of last year.
Seeking to ease opposing emotions
For many advertisers, Musk's explosive speech in November last year has always been an unavoidable knot, and now he is trying to downplay the impact of this matter.
Simply put, due to dissatisfaction with Musk's views on the Israeli Palestinian issue, major financiers such as Disney and Apple have completely stopped advertising on the X platform. Later, at an event in New York, Musk first asked Disney CEO Robert Egger by name if he was present, and then made a sensational speech: "If someone wants to use advertising to extort me? Use money to extort me? Go xxxx yourself to XX, don't invest in advertising.".
Musk is tough, but advertisers are also tough. According to media reports, as Musk's first full year after acquiring X (Twitter), this media platform's advertising revenue in 2023 was close to $2.5 billion, a 45% decrease from 2021.
Coming to Cannes this time, Musk's way of speaking has clearly become much more cautious.
During a conversation with Mark Reed, CEO of WPP, the world's largest advertising and communication group, on Wednesday, Musk emphasized that his remarks were not aimed at all advertisers, but rather at respecting freedom of speech.
(Musk and Reed have a conversation, source: X)
Musk also stated that advertisers have the right to decide whether their ads should be placed next to content that is compatible with the brand, which is not a problem. However, what is "not cool" is that some advertisers insist that content they do not agree with should not appear on the entire platform.
As the main purpose of this trip, Musk also emphasized why advertisers should choose the X platform. He said, "The most important thing for the X platform is that if you want to interact with senior decision-makers, the most influential people in the world, then the X platform is definitely the best.".
Using AI to Build a New Paradigm in the News Industry
After easing the atmosphere, Musk turned the topic to AI and predicted that the entire field would undergo greater changes next year.
He said, "I think things will happen very quickly. Next year you will see significant changes, and within five years you will see quite radical changes. Successful companies will be those that utilize artificial intelligence the most effectively."
For the X platform, Musk emphasizes that AI will bring a new paradigm for news acquisition.
Musk introduced, "X is using artificial intelligence to aggregate content from millions of users, which will become a new paradigm in the news industry. The X system can aggregate information from expert fields into news subscriptions, and you have tens of millions of posts, far exceeding the amount of content you can find in newspapers.". Although there will be some wrong information, it will be corrected soon. The Internet is gathering wisdom in various fields, and these industry experts should know more about the situation than journalists. "
By the way, Musk's "computing power super factory" also had new news on Wednesday. According to previous reports, this data center located in Memphis is expected to be put into operation next year.
On Wednesday local time, Dell CEO Michael Dell stated on social media that the company is collaborating with Nvidia to build an AI factory for xAI's Gork chatbot.
(Source: X)
Musk also revealed on Wednesday that, to be precise, the racks Dell is assembling only account for half of the xAI's planned supercomputing. For his other half, he didn't hide it, but it caused some confusion.
When forwarding a post from a news blogger on X platform, Musk revealed that another company responsible for building a data center is called SMC. However, compared to the familiar component manufacturer SMC among domestic investors, Musk is more likely to be talking about Super Micro Computer (code SMCI).
(Source: X)
Humanoid robots walk dogs and do household chores
Previously, Musk also mentioned his vision for Tesla Optimus humanoid robots during Tuesday's event.
He said people will start to see their personal Optimus as their friend, while jokingly saying that although Tesla is not currently prepared to make Optimus look more like a real person, they will work hard to make the robot "look better".
Tesla CEO Outlook states that the fully functional Optimus robot will be able to perform various tasks and become a personal assistant for families. Musk said, "You can have it walk the dog, take care of the house, take care of the children, cook, play the piano - so it will be a universal humanoid robot."
Musk also believes that in the future, everyone will have their own robots, and with other robots working in different industries, the number of robots in the future may exceed that of humans.
