Paris:

Artificial intelligence developer OpenAI is “not for sale”, a senior executive said Tuesday in response to a reported $97.4 billion bid from competitor Elon Musk.

“OpenAI is not for sale and any such suggestion is really disingenuous,” the company’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane said on the sidelines of an AI summit in Paris, dismissing the offer as coming from a competitor “who has struggled to keep up with the technology and compete with us in the marketplace”.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A group of Elon Musk’s close associates, including former interns and trusted sidekicks, has taken control of the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency which manages government offices and technology. The team is attempting to use White House security credentials for unusual access to GSA tech, deploying AI software, and restructuring the office to reflect Musk’s vision, according to leaked documents obtained by Wired.

Several people who helped Musk take over Twitter now have key roles at GSA. Nicole Hollander, who was part of Musk’s Twitter transition team, now holds a top government position with access to GSA systems. Her husband, Steve Davis, who also stayed at Twitter HQ, is now an integral member of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Other appointees include Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer, Edward Coristine, a past Neuralink intern, and Ethan Shaotran, a Harvard AI researcher. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has also brought in key figures from Musk’s circle – Amanda Scales, formerly with xAI, is now OPM chief of staff, and ex-Tesla engineer Riccardo Biasini is a senior advisor.

A current GSA employee, speaking anonymously, expressed concern over the shift. “They are acting like this is a takeover of a tech company” rather than an effort to improve government services, the employee said.

Elon Musk’s team aims to cut federal spending by 50 per cent across GSA offices, Wired reports. Internal documents suggest an attempt to use IT credentials from the Executive Office of the President to access GSA systems. A former Biden official warned this could let non-government DOGE members view sensitive contracts and monitor federal workers.

The new leadership is also cutting GSA’s real estate holdings. A whiteboard in a DC office listed $585 million in cuts, 15 regulations removed, and 2,03,000 square feet of office space eliminated. Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian called it the “first step” in revising federal real estate.

Nicole Hollander has requested multiple “resting rooms” for senior GSA staff, similar to the sleeping pods set up at Twitter HQ after Musk’s takeover. A GSA working group recently discussed funding and waivers for these rooms.

Musk’s team is also pushing for AI integration in government operations. Documents show efforts to authorise Google Gemini and Cursor for federal use. A recent meeting with Google covered Telemetry, a software monitoring tool. A-suite engineers have also requested access to a decade’s worth of GSA accounting, vendor payments, and procurement records.

Earlier this month, OPM emailed over two million federal employees, offering “deferred resignations.” This would let them leave for the private sector while receiving full pay and benefits until September 30. A follow-up email confirmed the offer was real.

But the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) warned that Congress may not approve the plan and that funding is uncertain. There are also concerns that payments may not be honoured, given Elon Musk’s history of legal battles over unpaid severance at Twitter.

Elon Musk’s estranged transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, launched a subtle yet scathing attack on him after the billionaire allegedly made a “Nazi salute” during President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally. The 21-year-old, who legally changed her name and gender at the age of 18 and disowned Mr Musk, did not name him but heavily hinted she was responding to the controversial incident.

“I’m just gonna say let’s call a spade a f***ing spade,” Ms Wilson wrote on Instagram’s Threads platform.

“Especially if there were two spades done in succession based on the reaction of the first spade,” she added.

As her post blew up, Ms Wilson wrote another thread, sarcastically explaining that she did not intend the card analogy to insinuate anything about her father.

“I don’t know why ya’ll are reacting with such vigor, I’m clearly only talking about card suits. I mean I have ADHD and this was CLEARLY just an accident that people happened to interpret to mean something other than just card suits. After all, there’s no proof I’m not just talking about card suits,” Ms Wilson joked.

“People assuming that I’m not just talking about card suits just goes to show how dishonest people/the media can be.”

What did Musk do?

A video showing the Tesla boss making a one-armed gesture during a speech at the rally went viral on social media with users comparing it to a Nazi salute. Mr Musk, however, dismissed the criticism. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” he posted on his social media platform X.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organisation founded to combat anti-Semitism that has criticized Elon Musk in the past, defended his gesture. “It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” the organization posted on X.

Also Read | “I Did Observe…”: Grimes Reacts To Elon Musk’s Gaming Skills Amid Cheating Allegations

‘Woke mind virus’

Ms Wilson and Mr Musk have not been on talking terms for a long time with the Tesla boss claiming that the “woke mind viruses” had killed his son.

“I was tricked into doing this. I lost my son, essentially. They call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason. The reason they call it ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead,” Mr Musk said in an interview, referring to gender-reassignment surgery.

“I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that. And we’re making some progress,” he added.

Responding to Mr Musk’s assessment of the situation, Ms Wilson said that she had “disowned” him. Her legal transition occurred on June 22, 2022, at a court in California. “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form,” Ms Wilson said back then.

Donald Trump’s first term gave the world a taste of deliberately disruptive unwanted involvement in the domestic affairs of other countries, with examples ranging from Britain in the throes of Brexit to North Korea where the 45th US president attempted to forge a personal deal with Kim Jung-Un.

US tech billionaire Elon Musk, however, has taken this to a whole new level. Musk appears willing to intrude in other nations’ affairs by using his personal influence with specific decision-makers, governments and institutions, or by attacking them from the sidelines of social media in order to remake them in the way he wants them to be. In contrast, Trump is more pragmatic and could do a deal with any nation provided they fall in line with his “America first” mission, and give him what he demands.

In the past six months, many countries have been subjected to Musk’s “personal foreign policy” initiatives. Until fairly recently, there were two schools of thought on his interest in global politics. Initially, Musk was merely “a mischievous antagonist” who simply loved to shock and appeared largely driven by social media.

But that has given way to nervousness in the face of Musk’s increasingly deliberate attempts at destabilising governments, including his persistent stoking of populist support for far-right parties, and potentially funding populist allies. This comes as current president Joe Biden warns of the growing power of the ultra wealthy in his final address to the nation before he steps down.

Musk wields enormous global influence not merely because of his wealth, connections, and fleet of companies. But arguably because he is a self-proclaimed populist, with increasingly far-right political preferences. As of January 20, he will also be a significant member of the Trump administration.

His political toolbox includes supporting or (more usually) strafing individual politicians (for instance UK prime minister Keir Starmer, or German chancellor Olaf Scholz ). He also backs populist parties such as Reform UK and AfD in Germany. He criticises government officials in other countries, judges and broadcasting outlets in places where he doesn’t live.

Musk’s political involvement appears to be largely aimed at giving succour to populist individuals, parties and causes, as well as actively hollowing out centrist parties in other countries. Musk’s political intrusion, however, has expanded of late, with an apparent eye on election results.

Examples include countries with elections some way off (Canada by attacking prime minister Justin Trudeau), or much sooner (Germany), giving him scope to criticise the incumbents while backing his chosen opposition party.

Musk’s attention is extensive, from attacks on Starmer, to support for Italy’s Georgia Meloni and Argentina’s Javier Milei.

WHOSE FOREIGN POLICY?

The worry for those working in foreign policy is that Musk has proven effective in the role of Trump’s pre-inauguration disruptor of choice, and may well be deployed in the name of the US government to continue his interference and destabilisation. The challenge will then be discerning where Musk’s personalised foreign policy ends, and where precisely US foreign policy begins.

Musk positions himself as the global defender of free speech , in order to soften the ground for Trump’s preferred combination of far-right populism and protectionist, tariff-driven trade approaches.

Musk’s way of working is to encourage national communities and leaders to “rally against rules”, thereby empowering far-right parties, and industry leaders who have spotted an opportunity to deregulate key sectors.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently announced an enormous transformation of the social media giant’s content moderation policy in the US. The European Parliament’s far right grouping Patriots for Europe supported Musk’s call for greater media freedom.

Both of these conveniently aligned with Musk’s targeting of the EU and EU regulation as “institutionalised censorship”, paving the way for Trump himself to kickstart any number of quarrels.

The buffer zones of common sense, including former UK deputy PM Nick Clegg as (the now former) head of policy for Meta, have been dispensed with. Zuckerberg’s thinking now echoes that of companies, regulators and politicians who agree with Trump.

DISRUPTIVE AND DIVISIVE

Musk represents both indirect and direct state interference as a solo global disruptor and as Trump’s preferred front man. Sitting at Trump’s right hand and – as of January 20 – heading the new US Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – means it is unclear who is acting, and in whose interests and crucially, who benefits.

Are countries less likely to tell Musk and Trump to back off, aware of the risk of a deluge of ire with very real consequences in terms of trade spats? This is certainly the approach of many, including Marietje Schaake, former European parliamentarian, arguing that: “Musk must be seen as representing the US president when he bets against the leadership of key European nations, allies until now.”

Or are countries just as likely to disregard Musk, betting that the ramped up performative bullying inherited from Trump can be largely ignored?

RESPONDING TO INTERFERENCE

While many may push back, only a few have the ability to make a difference in global politics, and the EU is one such example. The European Commission made clear that it closely watched Musk’s recent X livestream session with Alice Weidel, leader of German’s far right party AfD. This was in order to decide whether X itself provides (in this case) the AfD with an unfair public advantage – largely through the manipulation of algorithms designed to swamp competing non-AfD voices ahead of February’s German election.

The European Commission – in its role as enforcer of Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) – could impose high fines, or blocks. But it will need serious political will to do so, as well as incontrovertible evidence to prove that X is causing risk to the public by augmenting unlawful hate speech.

What are the consequences of Musk’s rollercoaster ride into global affairs? Deregulation is likely to be the order of the day. Maga has long pushed for a “small state/big companies” approach and this is likely to continue under Musk’s leadership of Doge.

There could also be problems ahead for those who don’t understand Musk’s role. Casualties here could include prospective secretary of state Marco Rubio along with US foreign policy officials in Washington (and their counterparts around the world), all of whom may be confused by whose agenda is being carried out.

But a slew of angry international allies is a poor start for any new government. Violating the “norms of responsible conduct” – however flippantly Musk regards them – will not ultimately assist in Trump himself being effective, but rather just more disruptive.

(Author: Amelia Hadfield, Head of Department of Politics, University of Surrey)

(Disclosure Statement: Amelia Hadfield has received Jean Monnet /Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe funding from the European Commission)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Elon Musk on Sunday praised the efficiency of India’s vote-counting process and slammed the prolonged delays in parts of the United States, particularly California. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mr Musk applauded India’s ability to count 640 million votes in just one day after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, contrasting it with the sluggish vote tallying in California for the US presidential elections, which remains unfinished nearly 20 days after voting began on November 5. 

Responding to a post that carried a screenshot of a media report titled ‘How India counted 640 million votes in a day’, the Tesla and SpaceX chief wrote, “India counted 640 million votes in 1 day. California is still counting votes”

India counted 640 million votes in 1 day.

California is still counting votes https://t.co/ai8JmWxas6

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2024

India conducted its Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, involving over 900 million eligible voters. Of these, a record-breaking 642 million people cast their votes. Despite the sheer scale, results were declared within a single day of counting.

How India Counted The Votes

Through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs): Used since 2000, these devices ensure rapid and accurate counting.

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT): Introduced to enhance transparency, the VVPAT system produces a paper slip for every vote cast, allowing for verification if needed.

Additionally, India’s 543 parliamentary constituencies conduct counting simultaneously, overseen by the Election Commission of India (ECI).  According to Supreme Court guidelines, postal ballots are processed and counted before EVM votes are unsealed. Under the supervision of Returning Officers, votes are tallied in centralised locations, and results are declared after each round.
Even during state elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand last week, India managed to count nearly 90 million votes in just a few hours. Maharashtra alone, with a population four times that of California, delivered results with remarkable efficiency.

Why The Delay In California 

Vote counting in the United States – particularly in states like California – often stretches over weeks. California, the most populous US state, reported delays in its November 5 presidential election, with more than 300,000 ballots still uncounted weeks later. This has drawn criticism not only from Mr Musk but also from voters and analysts who question the system’s efficiency.

California conducts most of its elections by mail. Processing these ballots involves multiple steps like Signature verification on ballot envelopes, opening and sorting ballots before they can be tallied, etc.
Unlike India’s centralised oversight by the ECI, the US relies on state and local election offices, each with its own laws and resources.

New Delhi:

Elon Musk has been a near-constant presence on the side of US President-elect Donald Trump. It was proven again when Google CEO Sundar Pichai dialed Trump and Musk joined the call, reported The Information. Mr Pichai called Trump to congratulate him on his victory over Kamala Harris in the recently concluded US Presidential Election.

In the past, Musk has alleged biases in Google’s search results, suggesting that upon searching for Trump, news related to Harris surfaced.

Wow https://t.co/9utMxHQCog

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk has previously joined telephone calls with world leaders and dispensed advice on personnel choices.

It is because of his close ties with the President-elect, Musk is called the “First Buddy”.

Both have been spotted together at various events including the launch of the SpaceX Starship rocket and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight bout on November 16.

Under Trump’s cabinet, Musk will lead the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ – a position Trump hinted at during his campaign trail. Musk will head the department alongside Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump said in a statement.

Musk even found a mention in Trump’s victory speech and was described as “an amazing guy”.

“We have a new star, a star is born: Elon,” Trump told his supporters. “He’s an amazing guy. We were sitting together tonight. You know, he spent two weeks in Philadelphia, in different parts of Pennsylvania, campaigning.”

The duo spent the election night at Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, keeping a close watch on the results and Trump’s return to the Oval Office after a four-year gap.

A video showing billionaire Elon Musk scrolling through his phone and laughing during an event in New York became a topic of discussion on social media. The video was recorded when Mr Musk was sitting right next to US President-elect Donald Trump at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight bout on Saturday. While the high-decibel event was on, the Tesla chief (and soon going to be the head of US’ Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE) was seen cracking up while scrolling through his phone. Many social media users said the richest man on the planet is enjoying memes.

Resharing the post on his own timeline, Mr Musk commented, “I am watching myself watch this!” The video also shows Mr Trump gesturing to Mr Musk, encouraging him to focus on the fight.

I’m watching myself watch this https://t.co/37GMB1EQN9

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2024

The clip and Mr Musk’s comment soon amassed thousands of responses on X (the platform he bought in 2022).

“This guy bought Twitter cause he was bored. Because he has no yacht and his jet is small. No crazy mansion I know of. What else? Just video games and memes. Until someone provoked him into politics,” one user commented.

“I love seeing Elon happy, if we can make him laugh with some memes after everything he is going through just for trying to make the world and the West better, it’s awesome,” said another.

“Bahahaha.. he might fight Zuck by end of tonight,” a third user said.

Mr Musk accompanied Mr Trump, UFC chief executive Dana White, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, country rock artist Kid Rock, RFK Jr, among others. Mr Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr were also in the audience for the bout.

After Jon Jones defended his heavyweight title with a third-round technical knockout against fellow American Stipe Miocic in the main event, the fighter celebrated with Trump’s trademark ‘YMCA’ dance.

Brussels:

Donald Trump’s White House comeback gives his ally Elon Musk a sizeable advantage in a running standoff with EU tech regulators — who may now think twice before fining his X platform over disinformation concerns.

The world’s richest man — as the boss of Tesla and SpaceX as well as the former Twitter — threw his full weight into Trump’s campaign to reclaim the US presidency.

Elon Musk backed the Republican with hard cash but also used his far-reaching social media platform to push pro-Trump messages, including inflammatory disinformation, to his more than 200 million followers.

The bet amply paid off, with a victorious Trump tapping Musk for an outsized role to overhaul the US government — and putting Brussels in an uncomfortable spot.

With the European Union counting on continued US backing to keep an aggressive Russia from its borders, can it really afford to upset Trump by going after a prized ally?

Trump’s future vice-president J.D. Vance even mused on the campaign trail that Washington could drop support for NATO if the EU presses on with attempts to regulate Musk’s X network under a landmark new content law.

“American power comes with certain strings attached. One of those is respect free speech, especially in our European allies,” he warned.

For Musk, hostility to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is about more than just business: along with supporters on the American right he increasingly paints it as an ideological battle against censorship.

“The election in the US will not impact our enforcement work,” a spokesman for the European Commission — the powerful tech enforcer for the 27-nation EU — told AFP.

But experts are not so sure.

Billions in fines?

Musk’s X platform was formally accused by the commission in July of misleading users with its blue checkmarks for certified accounts, of insufficient advertising transparency and failing to give researchers access to the platform’s data.

The allegations are part of a wider DSA inquiry into how X tackles the spread of illegal content and information manipulation.

Each offence could theoretically trigger a fine of up to six percent of the annual global turnover of all the companies Musk controls — reaching into the billions.

According to several sources close to the proceedings, the commission was wrapping up its probe — and readying a heavy fine — when its digital chief Thierry Breton quit in September, having been denied a second term by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

But the stars have since realigned, with the EU now caught in the headlights for fear the volatile Trump will start a trade war and cut support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

‘Provoke’ Trump?

With Trump at the reins, enforcing EU tech rules against X may become a matter of politics as much as anything else.

“I’d be surprised if the commission chooses to provoke Trump over something like this,” said Alexandre de Streel, an expert at the Center on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) think tank.

“Transatlantic relations are going to become more complicated — and this probably isn’t the area where they will need to fight hardest,” he said.

“Musk believes the DSA goes too far in how it asks platforms to regulate content — and that is also the view of far-right parties in Europe,” de Streel noted. “It’s become a battle of ideas, and I don’t see Musk folding — especially not now.”

The European Commission also has to factor in Trump’s hard-right allies within the bloc, from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Italian leader Giorgia Meloni.

After Trump’s re-election, von der Leyen stressed the importance of the EU-US “partnership” and a “strong transatlantic agenda” — a stance echoed by Breton’s designated successor as digital enforcer, Henna Virkkunen.

“With war on its doorstep, Europe must think carefully,” said Umberto Gambini, of European affairs consultancy Forward Global. “I don’t think it can afford to upset Trump in these first months.”

Gambini predicts that the commission’s probes into X will keep ticking along but the departure of Breton — who clashed spectacularly with Musk via social media — will offer a chance to reset the relationship.

Already back in August, Brussels had distanced itself from a letter of warning sent by the French commissioner before Musk interviewed Trump live on X.

That said, “if Europe wants to remain credible” in the fight to rein in Big Tech, it “has to keep threatening fines in the billions, not millions”, Gambini said.

But with fragile transatlantic ties in mind, it may choose to focus its firepower on Chinese platforms such as TikTok instead, judged the EU expert.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Elon Musk is a billionaire with the highest net worth in the world, according to Bloomberg Index. And after Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election, the tech tycoon is close to breaking his wealth record (of $340 billion in 2021) following the rally of Tesla’s shares. The world’s richest person gained almost $21 billion on Monday as Tesla stock jumped 9 per cent, boosting his net worth to $335 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. So how long would it take for a salaried person to reach Musk levels of wealth?

Also Read | Elon Musk, Donald Trump And World’s Largest MAGA Megaphone

According to Forbes, the average annual salary in US is $59,428. It will take more than three million years for an average US resident to amass Mr Musk’s wealth by working a regular job, per Statista.

A study on UK’s working population claims it will take the average person 17 weeks and one hour to earn what Tesla’s founder and CEO does in five minutes. The research was done by mathematical modelling tool Gigacalculator.com that studied the earnings of the 10 highest paid bosses according to Bloomberg’s CEO pay index, and compared them to the average Briton’s full-time salary of 35,423 pounds.

In June, shareholders of Tesla voted in favour of restoring Mr Musk’s 10-year pay plan of $45 billion. According to the current exchange rate, this comes to about Rs 3.80 lakh crore in a year, or Rs 1,040 crore per day.

In September, a new report from Informa Connect Academy, a group that tracks wealth, said Mr Musk is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027. The report further said the billionaire’s wealth has been growing at an average annual rate of 110 per cent.

In terms of his earnings from assets, Mr Musk’s wealth primarily comes from his stakes in various companies like Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter) and The Boring Company.

Mr Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and showed his talents for entrepreneurship early, going door-do-door with his brother selling homemade chocolate Easter Eggs. According to the BBC, he developed his first computer game at the age of 12.

Mr Musk dropped out of Stanford University and founded two technology start-ups during the “dotcom boom” of the 1990s. His online banking company that eventually became PayPal was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

He bought X two years ago and since then, influence on the platform has skyrocketed with followers nearly doubling to 194 million.

Tesla’s Optimus, a humanoid robot stole the show at the ‘We, Robot’ event held in California, United States of America, on Thursday. Optimus robot was seen dancing, serving drinks, chatting with guests and even posing for a selfie. But what has now gone viral on social media is the interaction between Optimus and one of the guests.

In a one-minute-long video posted by the user @cb_doge on X (formerly Twitter), the guest says, “It’s insane. It is even talking.” After exchanging greetings, he says, “It is crazy, I am talking to a robot.”

During the casual conversation, the guest asks Optimus, “What is the hardest thing about being a robot?” And it said: “Trying to learn how to be as human as you guys are,” leaving the guest in splits.

“And that is something I try harder every day and hope that will help us become better,” it added.

Watch the conversation here:

A conversation between Tesla Optimus bot and a human is the best thing you’ll see on the internet today.

pic.twitter.com/2M9UJPTTLX

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) October 11, 2024

Another video shows Optimus knows how to have fun. Emmanuel Huna, X user and an architect and coder as per his bio, shared a video where he is seen playing “Rock, paper and scissors” with Optimus.

I just asked @Tesla Optimus to play rock, paper, scissors, and it did – check it out! pic.twitter.com/NrmEEA9R4M

— Emmanuel Huna (@ehuna) October 11, 2024

“It will basically do anything you want,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk while introducing Optimus at the ‘We, Robot’ event. “It can be a teacher. It can babysit your kids, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, and serve drinks. Whatever you can think of, it will do and it’s going to be awesome,” he added.

In a demo video displayed at the event, Optimus was seen picking up packages and doing household chores like watering plants, cleaning the kitchen top, unloading groceries, and playing with children.

pic.twitter.com/VK9vlGF0Ms

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2024