Israel’s Netanyahu meets Elon Musk in US, calls for fight against anti-Semitism

Washington:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged Elon Musk to combat anti-Semitism on his X platform as he sat down with the tech mogul to discuss artificial intelligence.

The conversation, which was broadcast on Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter), took place as the Tesla mogul is mired in a dispute with the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization based in the United States.

Musk accused the ADL of making unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism that scared off advertisers and hurt his company’s revenue, and threatened to sue for billions of dollars.

The ADL has accused the social media site of amplifying anti-Semitic hate speech for years and blames a sharp increase in problematic and racist speech on X after Musk completed his $44 billion buyout in October.

“I know your commitment to free speech,” Netanyahu told Musk, who presented himself as a free speech absolutist and welcomed back tens of thousands of banned accounts on the platform when he took office.

“I respect this because it is fundamental for democracies, but I also know your opposition to anti-Semitism…” declared the Prime Minister.

“I hope you find within the confines of the First Amendment the ability to not only end or roll back anti-Semitism as best you can, but also any collective hatred toward people that anti-Semitism represents.” , Netanyahu said.

Musk said that while his website couldn’t stop all hate speech before it was published, he was “generally against attacking any group.”

“I’m in favor of what moves civilization forward and ultimately leads us to become a space-faring civilization, where we understand the nature of the universe,” Musk said.

“We can’t do that if there’s a lot of infighting and then hatred and negativity,” he added.

– ‘Blessing and curse’ –

The main topic of the conversation was the potential impact of AI.

“I think in many ways we find ourselves today at a turning point for all of humanity, where we have to choose between a blessing and a curse,” Netanyahu told Musk.

Musk, who founded his own AI company this year, expressed optimism that international powers would see the wisdom in establishing common rules for AI to avoid any catastrophic outcomes that would affect the humanity.

“Every sport has a referee of one sort or another, so that’s what AI security is all about,” Musk argued, saying a replay of a nuclear arms race on AI was not wise.

Musk said he recently warned senior Chinese officials that if AI “is powerful enough and if we are not careful, digital superintelligence could be in charge of China, instead of the CCP (the Party). Chinese Communist)”.

“The CCP prefers to be in charge” and has taken regulatory action, he added.

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