Founder & CEO: Luxury Communications Council ~ Shephard Communications ~ Former Journalist: Evening Standard, The Independent
Today at Cannes Lions was something very special – an interview with Elon Musk by Mark Read Here are the 6 things I learned: 1) He has balls. Speaking at Cannes Lions just months after tweeting that the advertising agency should ‘go F itself’ is brave. And Mark didn’t let him get away with it 😊 I believe the key takeaway he wanted to communicate, was that X plans to do much more targeted advertising, as per Meta and Snap. 2) He is cavalier about human destruction. His long term predictions on Ai are that work will be optional in an age of abundance, with no shortages in the world. This will lead to a crisis of meaning. Radical changes are imminent but in this transitional period, those companies using AI will win. Although he is optimistic, he said ‘if there is total human destruction, I want to be around to see it!’ 3) He is giving us all robots. If he is correct, we will all own Optimus, a general humanised robot. There will be 20 billion in the world- one per person that will cook, babysit, be a friend. 4) He is quite funny. When asked by an audience member what he spends his money on, he joked, ‘I have a big money bin and I swim in it.’ 5) He wants to find aliens. The goal of Space X is to make life multi planetary, to extend the scope of consciousness by habiting Mars as he believes it is too ‘precarious to be reliant on one planet’. He hopes to find aliens and other long dead civilisations amongst the planets. 6) He is doing real good. Neuralink creates human AI symbiosis so those with a spinal injury can already play video games through telepathy. There is huge potential to restore full body mobility by by-passing the injury. His closing remark? ‘This is the most interesting time in history so enjoy the ride’
Jill Wise
6mo
Always interested in what business leaders have to say. By no means do I agree with all if it but I do believe their purpose is to push boundaries, challenge thinking and inspire people to envision new possibilities. Sometimes this means we’re pushed further and harder out of our comfort zones than we’d perhaps like. Sometimes we’re forced to consider ideas that are formed on the very brink of reasonable scientific probability. If we decide to head off expectantly into new, untested, directions we may make some serendipitous discoveries, we may also scare ourselves and we’ll likely get some things wrong and regret some unintended consequences. I suppose ultimately we have to decide whether we want to be led by high risk takers who want to innovate quickly or take a more measured approach to exploration. But unless we reach consensus and put some rules around how we want to approach planetary issues such as AI, sustainable futures and space exploration we’ll likely find out that the first movers have already set actions into motion that determine our future choices whether we like it or not.
Ruth Lux
5mo
Really interesting - I enjoy his comments about a forthcoming age of abundance and the changes it will drive in society.
Kristi Blake
5mo
That all sounds extremely terrifying to me. Who wants to be around to witness destruction of humanity?
Lucy O'Brien
6mo
very cool indeed. We have some pretty incredible changes ahead. 'Enjoy the ride' might be the best advice possible
great share 🙏🏻
Hamish Shephard
6mo
🌍 🤖 🚀 🚀
Sophie Catto
6mo
Great to meet you Rosie Shephard hope you enjoyed the rest of your Cannes trip. Looking forward to catching up at AllBright soon!
Managing Director at Element Human
6mo"work will be optional in an age of abundance"- there is no way that this will come to pass. This has been predicted for decades and it's never true. When tech helps us do our work quicker, we simply are asked to do more work in the same amount of time.