Israeli PM Netanyahu urges Musk to fight anti-Semitism

Tech tycoon Elon Musk departs following a meeting in the office of US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the US Capitol in Washington, DC

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged Elon Musk to fight anti-Semitism on his X platform as he sat down with the tech tycoon to discuss artificial intelligence.

The conversation, which was broadcast on Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter), came as the Tesla tycoon is mired in row with the Anti-Defamation League, a US-based Jewish organization.

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

The ADL has for years accused the social media site of amplifying anti-Semitic hate speech, and has charged that problematic and racist speech has risen sharply on X after Musk completed his $44 billion takeover in October.

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

“I respect that because it’s foundational to democracies, but I also know your opposition to anti-Semitism…” the prime minister said.

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

Musk said while his website couldn’t stop all hate speech before it was posted, he was “generally against attacking any group, no matter who it is.”

“I’m in favor of that which furthers civilization and which ultimately leads us to become a space-faring civilization, and 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 fallout from AI.

“I think in many ways, we stand today at a juncture for all humanity, where we have to choose between a blessing and a curse,” Netanyahu told Musk.

Musk, who founded his own AI company this year, said he was optimistic that international powers would see the wisdom of setting common rules for AI in order to avoid any catastrophic outcomes that would affect humanity.

“Every sport has a referee of one kind or another so that’s the rationale for AI safety,” Musk argued, saying a repeat of a nuclear arms race on AI was unwise.

Musk said he recently warned senior officials in China that if AI “is sufficiently powerful, and care is not taken, that digital super intelligence could be in charge of China, instead of the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party).”

“The CCP prefers to be in charge” and took action on regulation, he added.

arp/dw