Judge dismisses Elon Musk's suit against hate speech researchers; NPR, March 25, 2024

 Bobby Allyn, NPR; Judge dismisses Elon Musk's suit against hate speech researchers

"A federal judge has dismissed X owner Elon Musk's lawsuit against a research group that documented an uptick in hate speech on the social media site, saying the organization's reports on the platform formerly known as Twitter were protected by the First Amendment. 

Musk's suit, "is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose," wrote U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in his Monday ruling, "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech."

Amid an advertiser boycott of X last year, Musk sued the research and advocacy organization Center for Countering Digital Hate, alleging it violated the social media site's terms of service in gathering data for its reports."

Twitter takeover: fears raised over disinformation and hate speech; The Guardian, October 28, 2022

Dan Milmo and Alex Hern, The Guardian ; Twitter takeover: fears raised over disinformation and hate speech

"Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition has been polarizing, sparking reactions from politicians, regulators and non-profits across different continents.

Some have expressed concerns about potential changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies now that it’s in the hands of the Tesla billionaire, while others celebrated how they expect the platform’s newly minted leader will handle content and speech on Twitter.

Senior politicians in the UK and Europe on Friday warned Musk over content moderation on Twitter, with the EU stressing the platform will “fly by our rules” and a UK minister expressing concerns over hate speech under the billionaire’s ownership.

The EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, wrote on the platform on Friday that “in Europe, the bird will fly by our rules”, in response to Musk’s earlier tweet saying “the bird is freed” in apparent confirmation that he had bought the business.

The EU is introducing the Digital Services Act, which includes provisions for removal of illegal content including hate speech."

Elon Musk's secretive LA private school doesn't just teach spelling and math — it also asks students ethics and critical thinking puzzles you usually don't see elsewhere; Business Insider, September 3, 2018

Andy Kiersz, Business Insider; Elon Musk's secretive LA private school doesn't just teach spelling and math — it also asks students ethics and critical thinking puzzles you usually don't see elsewhere

"Elon Musk's secretive LA private school, Ad Astra, has developed a new tool for teachers and students.

Educational software developer ClassDojo is partnering up with Ad Astra to develop a set of critical thinking puzzles called "Conundrums" that they'll release to teachers and students this fall. The tools are meant to offer the type of critical thinking espoused by Ad Astra, although Ad Astra is not using this specific tool.

The Conundrums pose open-ended critical thinking or ethical problems for the students, who are then encouraged to discuss the issues among themselves and reason out a solution. They tend to pose somewhat more nuanced and complicated questions than most elementary or middle school curricula address."

Farting unicorn row: artist reaches settlement with Elon Musk; The Guardian, July 21, 2018

Damien Gayle, The Guardian; Farting unicorn row: artist reaches settlement with Elon Musk

"A Colorado artist says he has reached a settlement with Elon Musk after challenging the Tesla tycoon’s use of a farting unicorn motif that he had drawn as an ironic tribute to electric cars.

Musk used the cartoon image on Twitter, without attribution, to promote his Tesla electric car range, and ignored Tom Edwards’ attempts to come to a licensing arrangement, telling the artist’s daughter it would be “kinda lame” to sue."

Elon Musk drawn into farting unicorn dispute with potter; The Guardian, June 27, 2018

[Kip Currier: Given the facts as presented in this article (and knowing that the U.S. only recognizes "moral rights" vis-a-vis the very narrow Visual Artists Right Act [VARA]), is there anyone who still doesn't think that at the very least the "decent" thing to do would have been for Elon Musk/Tesla to provide attribution (let alone some kind of compensation) when repeatedly using Tom Edwards' image? Imagine if the situation were reversed and someone was using Elon Musk's "original expressions" without attribution.]

"Edwards said he wanted to speak out in part because he often hears similar stories from artists. “I realize my farting unicorn is not as serious as whistleblowers,” he said, “but honestly, it’s all about integrity.”

He added: “I’d really like to get on Elon Musk’s good side … He’s really really interesting. But he isn’t above copyright law.""

Musk and Zuckerberg are fighting over whether we rule technology—or it rules us; Quartz, April 1, 2018

Michael J. Coren, Quartz; Musk and Zuckerberg are fighting over whether we rule technology—or it rules us

"Firmly in Zuckerberg’s camp are Google co-founder Larry Page, inventor and author Ray Kurzweil, and computer scientist Andrew Ng, a prominent figure in the artificial intelligence community who previously ran the artificial intelligence unit for the Chinese company Baidu. All three seem to share the philosophy that technological progress is almost always positive, on balance, and that hindering that progress is not just bad business, but morally wrong because it deprives society of those benefits.

Musk, alongside others such as Bill Gates, the late physicist Stephen Hawking, and venture investors such as Sam Altman and Fred Wilson, do not see all technological progress as an absolute good. For this reason, they’re open to regulation...

Yonatan Zunger, a former security and privacy engineer at Google has compared software engineers’ power to that of “kids in a toy shop full of loaded AK-47’s.” It’s becoming increasingly clear how dangerous it is to consider safety and ethics elective, rather than foundational, to software design. “Computer science is a field which hasn’t yet encountered consequences,” he writes."

Elon Musk quits AI ethics research group; BBC, February 22, 2018

BBC; Elon Musk quits AI ethics research group

"Technology billionaire Elon Musk has quit the board of the research group he co-founded to look into the ethics of artificial intelligence.

In a blog post, OpenAI said the decision had been taken to avoid any conflict of interest as Mr Musk's electric car company, Tesla, became "more focused on AI".

He has been one of AI's most vocal critics, stressing the potential harms."

Control AI now or brace for nightmare future, experts warn; CNN, February 21, 2018

Sherisse Pham, CNN; Control AI now or brace for nightmare future, experts warn

"...Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk issued a dire warning, suggesting the race between different countries for AI superiority could cause a new world war.

Cambridge's [Seán] Ó hÉigeartaigh described a somewhat less apocalyptic vision.

"We live in a world that could become fraught with day-to-day hazards from the misuse of AI," he said in a statement. "We need to take ownership of the problems -- because the risks are real."

The report, which was also backed by Musk's Open AI research institute and the Center for a New American Security, isn't all doom and gloom.

The authors acknowledge AI has many potential benefits, but they are urging governments and companies to take steps now to reduce the risks of it being misused."