Elon Musk Torches Advertisers in DealBook Summit Interview

1. KSKara Swisher0:00

   Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.

2. SGScott Galloway0:05

   And tell me you're abusing ketamine without telling me you're abusing ketamine, Kara.

3. KSKara Swisher0:10

   I am only bereft that Jonathan had to be there to witness that, Jonathan Ross Sorkin. Uh, did you see that part? Our friend, our Canadian, he called our Canadian friend Jonathan, his na... And Andrew was like, "I'm Andrew."

4. SGScott Galloway0:23

   Oh my God, I did see that.

5. KSKara Swisher0:24

   He said, "You're my good friend, Jonathan," and I was thinking, "Why did he think Jonathan?" Is it the only sort of Jewish-sounding name he could think of? I, I don't even know what he was doing there.

6. SGScott Galloway0:34

   Well, if this, if that whole, um, dialogue cemented or proved anything, it is that, in fact, Andrew Ross Sorkin is Canadian. One, he was on stage the entire time unarmed.

7. KSKara Swisher0:49

   We can talk about it more in a minute, but go ahead. Th- ..........................

8. SGScott Galloway0:50

   He was on stage the entire time, both unarmed and had health insurance. Canadian.

9. KSKara Swisher0:55

   Yeah. Mm-hmm.

10. SGScott Galloway0:56

    And y- you know how you get a Canadian to apologize?

11. KSKara Swisher1:00

    How?

12. SGScott Galloway1:00

    You step on his foot. And-

13. KSKara Swisher1:02

    (laughs)

14. SGScott Galloway1:03

    ... uh, that has some relevance here.

15. KSKara Swisher1:05

    Yeah, yeah, which we'll get to.

16. SGScott Galloway1:07

    Andrew felt bad. And it was like A- the way... Andrew felt, I don't know if he felt bad for the audience.

17. KSKara Swisher1:14

    He didn't know what to say. We're gonna go right to our first story, as we were talking about. Elon Musk gave quite a performance at the New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday, which was chockful of really good interviews. In a lengthy conversation with Jonathan Ross Sorkin, also known as Andrew, Elon addressed numerous topics, uh, ranging from his antisemitic comments to his grudge against Biden, and weighed in on OpenAI, aliens, monkeys, and more. And something about Earth? I don't quite understand what that was about. And while he apologized for that antisemitic tweet, it was a comment directed at X's advertisers that caused the most chaos. Let's listen.

18. EMElon Musk1:47

    You don't want them to advertise? No. What do you mean? I- i- if s- if somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. (laughs) But... Go fuck yourself.

19. NANarrator2:05

    (laughs)

20. EMElon Musk2:06

    Is that clear? I hope it is. Hey, Bob.

21. KSKara Swisher2:10

    And when pressed on what it would mean for his company, this is what he said. "Tell it to Earth." Uh, you know, it... You have to watch this in whole 'cause it's, the entire thing is bizarre, not just this, um, his diatribe against, uh, uh, not being invited to a Biden comm tab. Um, everything was so strange. "Tell it to Earth." Wh- what did you think as you watched this? Uh, the shout-out to, was to Bob Iger, by the way, who earlier in the, who was in the audience, who earlier in the day asked about, when asked about Elon and advertising on X said that the association was not necessarily a positive one. Let me have some other highlights, if we wanna call them that. Elon's issues with Biden go back to Tesla getting excluded from this White House event on electric vehicles. He, shortly after Biden took office, he said it wasn't fair. Um, he's- he's obviously hurting from it. Um, he said, "I have done more for the environment than any other person on Earth" when talking about electric vehicle sales. Nikki Haley, uh, was dismissed as pro-censorship candidate. Uh, more on her later. OpenAI should be renamed Super Closed Source for Maximum Profit AI, ha ha. Scott, please go ahead.

22. SGScott Galloway3:12

    I was on a plane watching it, uh, last night. I came home from Miami, and I found it difficult to watch. Um, you know, I- I think the most generous thing you could say is it was an intense, uh, bout of jet lag, but there's something going on here. And (laughs) I of course went to ChatGPT and I typed in, "What are the symptoms of a narcissist having a breakdown?" And it came back with intense rage and anger, blame shifting-

23. KSKara Swisher3:40

    Yeah. Yeah.

24. SGScott Galloway3:40

    ... emotional dysregulation-

25. KSKara Swisher3:42

    Mm-hmm.

26. SGScott Galloway3:42

    ... paranoia-

27. KSKara Swisher3:43

    Mm-hmm.

28. SGScott Galloway3:43

    ... depression, anxiety-

29. KSKara Swisher3:45

    Right.

30. SGScott Galloway3:45

    ... manipulative behaviors, isolation, self-destructive behaviors, increased sensitivity to criticism, and breakdown of relationships. I mean, his statements were so ridiculous, Kara.

Episode duration: 12:38