Honestly, I think Elon came off pretty badly. One the one hand you have someone who’s first language isn’t English but is basically giving a long, hard to prepare for, interview on topics he openly admits he’s not a subject expert on; and on the other hand you have a smug individual who’s first language is English and who is actually making fun of the first guy.

Often their disagreements are more cultural divides (remember Chinese culture and philosophy is radically different from the kind of ideologies held in Silicon Valley) rather than technical mismatches. However that doesn’t stop Musk poking fun at Jack.

I think it’s also worth remembering that Musk has a very high opinion of himself. Some of it is deserved but he is also wrong as often as he is right. So he’s in no position to be making fun of others on stage; let alone for their cultural differences. But I guess that’s always been Musks behaviour (if you take a look at some of the stuff he posts on a Twitter).

Musk is South African. But English was his first language.

Thanks for the correction. I’ll update my post. The first language part is definitely what matters in this context rather than which English speaking country he was born.

Elon was terrible with comical AI doomsday predictions, that no AI researcher including Turing winners Hinton and lecunn endorse. Ma was the only sane voice in the room.

Academic view of AI/ML in legal system: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603763/how-to-upgrade-jud...

Reality of AI/ML in legal system: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/aug/08/rise-of-t...

A perfect reminder of why ethics needs to be taken more seriously by Software "Engineers". I don't think we should throw around that title lightly when stuff like this is happening.

People won't die from what we build, but they can easily be denied medical insurance or get harsher sentences because an AI suggested it to a judge (especially those who aren't aware of the technology's limitations).

Building machines to make decisions should not be taken lightly. See: FAA(not N)G companies who ban people without human interaction.

Jack Ma: "I think we should work 3 days per week, for 4 hours a day"

Elon: ????

For those who didn't watch it here are the highlights of that debate https://youtu.be/aHGd6LqAVzw

At least watching the first half of the highlights only, Elon comes off... poorly. And I'm a super fan!

I could say the same about the adoration Musk gets from the Western masses. A man who is born with a silver spoon in one's mouth has carefully crafted this image of him being a life-saving genius. Claims to be working 24/7 on his projects while reality shows he is tweeting most of the time, with as highlight calling someone a pedophile. Vanity projects like a flamethrower and reinventing a metro system but worse. Exploiting his workers. But the masses think he is personally going to live on Mars to save humanity.

Yes you’ve noticed Elon is human, as many of us have. But Jack Ma is... remarkable. You should watch the video.

Funny, I asked my Uber driver what he thought of Travis Kalanick. Also worshiped him.

Hah!

This was glorious.