“Objectively, you are the biggest threat to democracy in America today.”
Serving LeCun
After multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk decided to start talking smack about media and democracy, AI “godfather” Yann LeCun had a few choice words for the South African mogul.
The debacle began with far-right pundit Ben Shapiro criticizing the New York Times‘ research methods. As he’s wont to do, the website’s billionaire owner Musk co-signed the pundit’s position by shooting off his own quote-tweeted missive about what he thinks of the newspaper.
“The New York Times is a threat to our democracy,” the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” declared.
In response, LeCun let Musk have it.
“Objectively,” the Facebook AI czar quipped, “you are the biggest threat to democracy in America today.”
“You are an oligarch who bought himself a huge megaphone so he could use it to support a would-be dictator,” LeCun continued, referring to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, “and to discredit the press, scientists, research organizations, the electoral process, and all the institutions necessary for a functioning democracy.”
Fighting Words
It’s certainly not the first time the Turing Award-winning computer scientist has criticized Musk, nor will it likely be the last.
Earlier this year, the mercurial CEO picked a fight with the AI pioneer — and learned quickly that he’s not to be messed with.
To be fair, that sparring match occurred after LeCun mocked a hiring call for xAI, Musk’s OpenAI competitor.
“Join xAI if you can stand a boss who claims that what you are working on will be solved next year (no pressure),” LeCun tweeted.
The billionaire, bless his heart, really did try to clap back.
“What ‘science” have you done in the past five years?” Musk queried.
LeCun responded with a link to the more than 80 technical papers he’d put out since early 2022 — and when Musk told him he was “going soft” and that he should “try harder,” the AI expert couldn’t help but laugh.
“Now you’re acting as if you were my boss,” LeCun responded, replete with cry-laughing emojis.
It’s clear that there’s little love lost between these two opposing powerhouses — but as LeCun so aptly pointed out earlier this year, only one has the published bona fides to back it up.
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