Elon Musk Says X Chose Free Speech Over Advertizer Money: Cannes Lions

Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk was interviewed Wednesday, by WPP CEO Mark Read in packed Lumere Theater at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France. The SpaceX chief talked free speech, AI, Space exploration, and explained his "go fuck yourself" quip to advertizers in an interview last fall.

Musk said his remark wasn’t intended to “target advertisers as a whole,” and reiterated his commitment to free speech, stating that X will prioritize free speech over profit. He believes that advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands, but that insisting on censorship is not acceptable.

“I think it’s important to have a freedom of speech platform where people from a wide range can express their views," Musk said. "And in some cases, there are advertisers who were insisting on censorship. If it’s a choice between censorship and money and free speech and losing money, we’re going to pick the second. Advertisers have a right to appear next to content that is compatible with their brands, that’s totally fine, but what is not cool is insisting that there can be no content they disagree with on the platform… Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and for X to be the public square of the world, it has to be a free speech platform – within the bounds of the law. I think it’s imperative that people have the right to speak.”

Read asked if, as the boss of X, Musk regretted any of his own past viral posts on the platform. “I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time, but at least you know it’s genuine, not some sort of PR," the Tesla chief said. "If you speak freely, there’ll be times when you are foolish, of course, but if you’re constantly going through a filter, you’re not real, so I guess it’s better to be real than go through a filter.”

Musk also pitched the value of X to advertisers, highlighting its unique features and capabilities. He emphasized that X is the best platform for reaching senior decision-makers and influential people, and that it offers advanced AI-powered content matching to ensure that ads are delivered to users who find them engaging and relevant to their interests.

“If you want to reach the most influential people in the world, not just social media influencers but actually (those) who run companies, run countries, and intellectuals of the world, people who write, the X platform is by far the best,” Musk said. “It’s almost the only way to reach those people. They’re not watching TV, they’re not doing TikTok videos. X is smaller than other social media platforms, but they’re the most influential people in the world, so if you want to reach them, it’s the best place to go.”

The Tesla chief also spoke about the potential risks of AI, predicting a 10-20% chance of a global disaster related to AI. He emphasized the need for responsible innovation and the importance of considering the potential consequences of technological advancements.

Musk also spoke about his other companies SpaceX and Neuralink, while responding to Read's question about his motivation for choosing what industry to focus on.

“I’m motivated by curiosity about the nature of the universe,” he said. “The goal of SpaceX is to make life multi-planetary, to expand the life of consciousness. In order to do that, we need to move people to Mars. This is a precarious situation on Earth. Our potential life span is much larger as a multi-planetary civilization.”

Musk laughed when asked if he was data driven. He paused for thought: “I’m not particularly data driven,” he said. “I try to mentally simulate what the end customer would like.”

He is currently focused on creating human-AI symbiosis at his company, which puts Brain-Computer Interface chips into brains. “Our first human recipient has a Neuralink implant,” Musk said. “We may be able to enhance human intelligence so we get to keep up with AI and create better human-AI symbiosis.”

On a lighter note, Musk’s son, X AE A-XII( fondly called Lil X ), made a cameo appearance at the festival, losing one of his sneakers during an outing with his father. The Tesla founder was photographed Wednesday, walking in the South of France ahead of the toddler held onto by an unidentified woman. The 3-year-old was visibly missing one of his shoes.

The SpaceX chief wore all-black, while his son, whom he shares with ex Grimes, 36, sported a striped short-sleeve shirt, light blue shorts and navy socks. The 52-year-old dad and world's richest man famously takes Lil X to events where the toddler, who he called his "comfort person" steals the show.