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Elon Musk gets his AI ideas from whatever sci-fi movie he saw last (pivot-to-ai.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 14 points 3 weeks ago (13 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.

[–] self@awful.systems 16 points 3 weeks ago (9 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?

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

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

[–] self@awful.systems 10 points 3 weeks 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.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think it was SpaceX, not Tesla, but yeah... boring AF warehouse.

[–] self@awful.systems 8 points 3 weeks ago

it takes craft to make a rocket lab look boring, assuming it was intentional and not the result of an adult coming into the room and reminding Musk that none of the government secrets should be on film

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

part of the deal was they got to film in the Tesla factory

Wait he pulled a Trump?

[–] self@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago

pretty much! for a very similar length and style of cameo too

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