125
Elon Musk gets his AI ideas from whatever sci-fi movie he saw last (pivot-to-ai.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M] to c/techtakes@awful.systems
50 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

My pet theory is that Robert Downey Jr is the reason Elon musk is as successful as he is.

Considering RDJ's role as Tony Stark seems to have given Musk the template he used for his public rise to fame, you may be on to something.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    it’s almost definitely the reason why Musk keeps making utterly cringe cameos in sci-fi shit, starting with Iron Man 2 and continuing on to Star Trek: Discovery and (of fucking course) Rick & Morty, and a bunch of other weird shit like the Saturday Night Live episode that was just propaganda. his former PR team very likely set up whatever price point worked for the studios so Musk could pay for a cameo, and Musk loved it so much he kept doing it after he fired that team.

    what’s fucking bizarre is the Iron Man writers seem to swear their version of Tony Stark was based on Musk, and we know now Musk’s nothing like that. so looking back with more seasoned eyes: how much of the first Iron Man was just propaganda too? of course there’s all the libertarian shit — whose idea was all that, actually?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    what’s fucking bizarre is the Iron Man writers seem to swear their version of Tony Stark was based on Musk, and we know now Musk’s nothing like that. so looking back with more seasoned eyes: how much of the first Iron Man was just propaganda too? of course there’s all the libertarian shit — whose idea was all that, actually?

    You want my suspicion, Marvel were probably taking their cues from the public image SpaceX/Tesla's marketing and/or Musk's PR team had put out about the guy - as an eccentric genius par excellence who'd save humanity from global warming and/or get us to Mars.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago

    I wish I could remember who it was who said that out of all those inane cameos, Iron Man 2 is the only one that makes sense, because Tony Stark at his most boozy, self-indulgent and self-destructive would invite Musk to a party.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Tony Stark treats him like a Putz in Iron Man 2. Not sure that's what Musk was going for.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    it’s really bizarre how obviously forced the propaganda is, looking back:

    • the cameo’s very short and not very flattering — Tony’s written as close to blowing Musk off as they could probably manage, and they definitely weren’t giving him more than the bare minimum screen time he paid for
    • part of the deal was they got to film in the Tesla factory, so it’s the bad guy’s base and it looks (to my memory, it’s been a minute since I’ve seen Iron Man 2) boring as fuck, like nobody really wanted to film there

    given how utterly, sickly-sweet positive his latter cameos are, Musk was probably pissed at his Iron Man 2 cameo and had a few new clauses written into his contract with the studios going forward. as for why the crew’s attitude toward Musk seemed to change between the first and second films, my theory is: according to reputation and second-hand experience, Musk has always been a fucking asshole in person. he probably burned out the crew’s good will quickly, and they just wanted to be rid of him.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Now I wonder if Musk calling the diver "pedo guy" was him thinking "yeah, this is exactly what Tony Stark would say to the bad guy" because he doesn't understand media literacy even a little bit. (More likely, it's just him being the regular type of weird we've come to expect from him)

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •