New York – Elon Musk apologised on Wednesday for what he called his “dumbest” social media post ever, in his first interview with mainstream media since his anti-Semitic post on X earlier this month. But he lashed out at advertisers who are leaving his platform because of rising anti-Semitism on X.
“I don’t want them to advertise,” he said at the New York Times DealBook Summit in New York. “If anybody wants to blackmail me with advertising or money, go f**k yourself. Go. F**k. Yourself,” he said. “Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel,” he added, referring to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who spoke at the summit on Wednesday.
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Musk’s remarks.
Musk made the remarks while X CEO Linda Yaccarino was in the audience. Yaccarino was brought in to help the company win back big-name advertisers.
In a meandering conversation that lasted well over an hour, Musk also said he had no problem being hated. “Hate away,” he said. “It’s a real weakness to want to be liked.
Dressed in a leather jacket, black jeans, leather boots and a “bring them home” necklace given to him by the family of an Israeli hostage, Musk added that it’s been “a hell of a year” and admitted he sometimes “says the wrong thing”.
A number of prominent brands suspended advertising on X, formerly known as Twitter, this month after Musk publicly embraced an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory favoured by white supremacists.
The advertising exodus included media companies such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN.
But he also said his tweet, which has been branded anti-Semitic, was perhaps “the worst” he’d ever done.
“I mean, look, I’m sorry for that … post,” he said. “It was stupid of me. Out of 30,000, it might literally be the worst and stupidest post I’ve ever made. And I’ve tried my best to clarify six ways from Sunday, but you know, at least I think it’s going to be obvious that far from being anti-Semitic, I’m actually philosemitic.”
Musk visited Israel this week, where he visited a kibbutz attacked by Hamas on 7 October, spoke to families of Israeli hostages and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.
But Musk said on Wednesday that his trip to Israel was “not an apology tour” and that “it wasn’t in response to all of that”. Musk said he’s a good person, but he’s not going to “tap dance” to show people that.
On Monday, Musk told Netanyahu of the latest attacks: “You have to neutralise those who want to murder; then you have to stop the propaganda that trains people to be murderers in the future; and then you have to make Gaza prosperous. If that happens, I think it’s going to be a good future. …. I’d like to help.
But in a separate conversation at the DealBook Summit, Herzog seemed uncertain that Musk would remain consistent in his messaging.
“We had an open and frank conversation that I found interesting and I think it was mutually beneficial for both of us,” Herzog said. “I sincerely hope that we will see some of [his activism against anti-Semitism] in the near future.”
Musk and AI
Musk was also asked about the recent drama at OpenAI, where CEO Sam Altman was abruptly fired by the board earlier this month, only to be reinstated – with a largely new board – just days later. The company has said little about the reasons for the management shake-up.
Either Altman had a serious problem and should have been fired, said Musk, one of the company’s founders, or the board was wrong and should resign.
“The circle of power can corrupt,” he said of Altman. “I’m quite concerned that there’s a … dangerous element to AI,” he speculated. AI, he said, can be more dangerous “than a nuclear bomb”.
He also criticised OpenAI for no longer being the open source company he once envisioned. OpenAI should be renamed “super closed source for maximum profit AI”, he said.
What began as an apology for anti-Semitic tweets turned into a meandering conversation about childhood trauma, aliens, mobile phones in people’s heads and using X in the bathroom. Much of the room walked out before the discussion was officially over.
