Mark Zuckerberg has problems. Coronavirus is really dangerous if you are old or in poor health, but you shouldn’t be closing factories. And Kanye West should run for president, in 2024.
Yes, Elon Musk is chatting again about tech, pandemic, celebrity, science fiction, and casual billionaire gossip with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd for a long feature released Saturday night.
The visionary billionaire and CEO of Tesla sounds convinced with a new baby, X Æ A-Xii, with his singing girlfriend Grimes. The couple lives in Los Angeles, but like many Californians, their housing situation is fluid.
Musk put his Hillsborough property and four Los Angeles mansions up for sale in May. He revealed that Grimes would prefer that they keep at least one house, although Musk suggested renting a place rather than keeping a portfolio of large, empty houses.
“These days, I’ve been staying in this weird Gatsby-type house, what I call the haunted mansion, and it’s a little grim, to be completely frank,” Musk told the Times, without identifying a particular home. “The house itself is beautiful but, as you know, it’s like Wayne Manor without Alfred.”
He recalled the happy days of the Silicon Valley couch browsing the homes of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, saying it was a great way to catch up with friends.
Musk initially encouraged West, a longtime friend, to run for president in another four years, so as not to split the black vote of Democratic candidate Joe Biden. But after West posted a series of erratic tweets, Musk texted the artist to see if he was okay.
He is also concerned about the presidential elections and the role of Facebook in allowing rumors and falsehoods to spread rapidly and damage democracy.
“I don’t have much confidence,” Musk told Dowd. “I am not pro-Facebook, I like it. I don’t have a Facebook page. SpaceX and Tesla removed their Facebook pages. SpaceX and Tesla have an Instagram, but I think it is relatively harmless. So I think Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg still have a lot of work to do to restore public confidence in Facebook itself. “
Dowd asked a true or false question: Is Zuckerberg a sociopath?
Musk laughed: “Ah, oh, man … Mark Zuckerberg has some problems, we all have some problems.” Musk added that he is concerned about the Facebook founder’s complete control over the platform and the possibility of creating “dynastic wealth.”
And the tech giant explained why it believes Tesla factories and some other businesses should remain open during the health crisis. Musk defied Alameda and Fremont county health orders and reopened the electric vehicle factory in May. EV Electrek’s blog reported this month that more than 130 employees at Tesla facilities had tested positive for the virus.
Musk said he wears a mask on the production floor. But, he added, “It makes a lot of sense to have a lock if you’re vulnerable, but I don’t think it makes sense to have a lock if you’re not vulnerable.”
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