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During an interview with CNBCs David Faber, reiterated that nobody can tell him what to do or say, and that he doesnt care if his saying certain things hurts his companies.

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Musk doesnt care if what he tweets or says drives away future or current Tesla owners. Nor does he care if major advertisers on Twitter are put off by his remarks. The self-proclaimed free speech absolutist in a strange moment, Musk paused, before talking about Indigo Montoya. Per CNBC:

FABER: [...] I mean, you know, do your tweets hurt the company? Are there Tesla owners who say I dont agree with his political position because and I know it because he shares so much of it. Or are there advertisers on Twitter that Linda Yaccarino will come and say, you got to stop man or, you know, I cant get these ads because of some of the things you tweet.

MUSK: You know, Im reminded of a scene in The Princess Bride. Great movie.

FABER: Great movie.

MUSK: Where he confronts the person who killed his father. And he says, Offer me money. Offer me power. I dont care.

FABER: So, you just dont care. You want to share what you have to say?

MUSK: Ill say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.

The interview came after Musk tweeted that George Soros reminded him of the X-Men supervillain, Magneto. Musk received some criticism for the tweet about Soros, who like the comic book character is Jewish and survived the Holocaust. Faber pressed him, suggesting maybe the leader of a car company could refrain from tweeting certain things:

FABER: Okay but why share it? Why share it especially, I mean, why share it when people who buy Teslas may not agree with you, advertisers on Twitter may not agree with you. Why not just say, hey, I think this. You can tell me, we can talk about it over there. And you can tell your friends, but why share it widely?

MUSK: I mean, theres freedom of speech. Im allowed to say what I want to

Incendiary remarks have often landed Musk in hot water with regulatory agencies in the U.S. (and beyond) and have even had a direct result on Tesla.

A number of major advertisers started to pull funding from the platform in the wake of changes enacted by Musk causing a major loss in revenue.

Musk will soon pass the roll of Twitter CEO to Linda Yaccarino, tellingCNBC hell be able to again focus on Tesla and SpaceX more, but its unclear if his decision to step down is related to Twitters loss of ad revenue under his leadership.

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Elon Musk Will Say What He Wants, Even If It Costs Tesla Money - Jalopnik

This is the published version of the new Forbes Future of Work newsletter, which we launched May 19, and will be sent on Friday mornings with the latest news and insights for chief people officers and other talent leaders on disruptive work-related technologies, managing the future workforce and trends in the ongoing remote work debate. Click here to sign up!

Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

Greetings from an apparent member of the laptop classbillionaire Elon Musks latest sneer at remote work, which he grumbled this week is morally wrongand welcome to the debut issue of Forbes Future of Work newsletter.

In a CNBC interview this week, speaking about service and manufacturing workers, Musk said its messed up to assume that, yes, they have to go to work, but you dont. Its not just a productivity thing, I think its morally wrong, suggesting the laptop class is living in la-la land.

That argument, while acknowledging the disparate class impact of the pandemic, ignores the morally positive benefits of remote worka smaller environmental footprint from fewer commutes, more time for working parents to spend with children and more job opportunities for those not based in larger cities. Contributor Gleb Tsipursky called out the irony this way: Remote work is not a manifestation of entitlement; rather, it is an innovative solution to an unforeseen global challenge the kind of innovation Musk champions in his ambitious ventures.

Below, I hope youll find insights on more substantive debatesand what you really need to know about where work is headed from the week that passedin our brand new newsletter. Let us know what you think!

San Francisco-based Instawork, which pairs hourly workers with companies that need to fill shifts, announced a $60 million Series D Thursday to expand its use of AI, saying it will help better identify and match workers on its mobile app and platform. Co-founder and CEO Sumir Meghani will be speaking at Forbes Future of Work Summit June 1; you can register to attend virtually here.

Layoffs may be mounting, but the unemployment rate is still at record lows, and a thought-provoking report from the Harvard Project on the Workforce spotlights the under-realized promise public workforce programs have in helping American workers, writes contributor and Jobs for the Future president and CEO Maria Flynn.

A recently-amended lawsuit filed in Philadelphias Court of Common Pleas that adds new defendants to a suit against gig economy platforms underscores how such companies can shift accountability when it comes to independent contractors, legal experts told Forbes Cyrus Farivar.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman voiced support for more AI regulation while testifying at a historic congressional hearing Tuesday, saying intervention by governments would be critical and suggesting a Cabinet-level organization to keep up with AI development. (Worried? Randstad CEO Sander van t Noordende says these are the leadership skills that cant be replicated by AI.)

The hearing came as advancements in AI keep proliferating, with Microsoft recently expanding its Copilot AI tool to 600 customers and wanting to automate medical notes with GPT-4. Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabets stock got a rare downgrade despite the companys rollout of a host of new AI products as it tries to be both bold and responsible.

Canva Global Head of People Jennie Rogerson

Canvas Rogerson has an untraditional background, with a career in hospitality before joining design unicorn Canva as an executive assistant and quickly moving into leadership roles. I caught up with Rogerson earlier this yearhere are five takeaways from our chat, which have been edited for length and clarity.

What have been your biggest priorities as Canva has grown so quickly?

Last January, we intentionally set a philosophy called fewer hires well. We were keen on hitting profitability for our sixth year in a row [and] wanting to make sure our headcount costs were in line. But then that phrase fewer hires well cascaded into other things. Now we call it fewer things well. We're really certain of what goals we want to hit and really try and let go of the noise of the other stuff.

Have you had any job cuts? Are you planning any?

No, we've not cut jobs. We've just intentionally been really strong on how big do we want to be and what roles do we really need. No, not planning on it. Were really going as much as we can into planning versus anything near layoffs.

Whats a key focus for you as you look at the year ahead?

Pre-pandemic, technology downfallsor paper cuts, as we call themwere kind of fine. But being a globally remote team, if you stumble across under-cooked processes or technology that doesn't enable you, those paper cuts really add up over time. That's one of our key focuses this year: Looking at what are our tools that are enabling [us] to run really quickly.

How much of Canva is remote?

Were incredibly fortunate that the office is still jam-packed. Someone came in the other day as an external and said have you got an event? Oh no, it's just a Tuesday. [A spokesperson says the majority of Canva works hybrid schedules.]

With so many layoffs, do you think the social contract is shifting in what workers expect from tech companies?

When there were lots of layoffs [in the broader tech sector], what stability could we give our team? ... That's kind of the angle that I'm taking. Things will change. You've seen it in the last year. I think really being on the pulse of how people feel rather than looking externally is the way I'm riding through this next year or so. Really listening, thats my main thing.

The Office of Personnel Management, the federal agency overseeing human resources for the U.S. government, proposed a new rule last week that would prohibit the use of an applicants salary history in federal employment offers:

UiPath Co-CEO Rob Enslin On AI And Workplace Automation: The C-Suite Interview

Watch

With freelance workers on the rise, here are steps you can take to avoid worker misclassification.

Nearly half the workforce admits to spending more than 10 hours a week trying to look productive. Heres how to address this issue with your teams.

Workplace programs designed to help with mental health can do more harm than good. Heres how to make things better.

Elon Musk is far from the only CEO to criticize remote work. Which other high-profile CEOs have dialed back their support for WFH?

Check if you got it right here.

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Elon Musk's 'Morally Wrong' Remote Work Gripe Misses Its Many ... - Forbes

It looks like Elon Musk is moving to carry out his threat to sue Microsoft after the company refused to pay Twitters new API access fees.

On Thursday, Musks personal lawyer, Alex Spiro, sent a letter to Microsoft, accusing the software giant of violating Twitters rules on its API use, according(Opens in a new window) to The New York Times.

PCMag also obtained the letter(Opens in a new window) from Spiros office, and it reveals Microsoft allegedly collected a massive number of tweets through Twitters API, even though the social media company enforces rate limits(Opens in a new window) on the access.

Despite these limitations, the Microsoft Apps accessed Twitters APIs over 780 million times and retrieved over 26 billion tweets in 2022 alone, Spiro wrote. Indeed, for one of the Microsoft Apps, Microsofts account information outright states that it intends to allow its customers to go around throttling limits.

Twitters API allows third-party apps and sites to quickly pull and post information to the social media platform. But under Elon Musk, Twitter has begun charging for access to the API, which has prompted companies including Microsoft to bail on the fee, which can range from $42,000 to as much as $210,000 per month.

As a result, Microsoft was recently forced to drop Twitter support from the companys Smart Campaigns advertising platform. In response, Musk signaled he was ready to sue while implying Microsoft had abused Twitters API access to train its AI algorithms.

They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time, Musk said in a tweet(Opens in a new window) last month.

Spiros letter doesnt mention anything about Microsoft using the Twitter API access to train AI language models. Instead, it focuses on how Redmond allegedly operated eight separate Twitter API apps to supply services to Microsoft products and services, including Xbox One, Bing Pages, Azure, Power Platform, and Ads.

(Credit: Alex Spiro)

The (Twitter API) Agreement makes clear that Microsoft was obligated to disclose and obtain approval for its intended use case for each Microsoft App, and to notify Twitter of any substantive modification to those use cases. Yet Microsoft did not identify any use case for six of the eight Microsoft Apps that it continued to operate until last month, Spiro wrote.

Musks lawyer has also uncovered evidence Microsoft collected data from Twitters API for unnamed government clients. The Agreement prohibits use of the Twitter APIs on behalf of any government-related entity without first identify[ing] all such Government End Users to Twitter. Yet Microsoft did not provide any such notification to Twitter, Spiro wrote.

Hes now demanding Microsoft undergo a a compliance audit to verify whether it broke the rules. This includes Microsoft identifying all the Twitter content its currently in possession of, along with records on how the data is being used.

This could lead to bigger legal action if Twitters audit finds more wrongdoing, or if Microsoft refuses to comply. Spiro asked the software giant to provide the requested information by June 7.

A lawsuit would also occur as Musk is developing his own AI chatbot program to compete against OpenAIs ChatGPT, which Microsoft is using to power Bing. Musk has since take several shots at OpenAI, including possibly suing the company, which he ironically helped found.

For now, Microsoft has only indicated it plans on cooperating with Spiro on the compliance audit. We heard from a law firm representing Twitter with some questions about our previous use of the free Twitter API. We will review these questions and respond appropriately. We look forward to continuing our long term partnership with the company, Microsoft said in a statement.

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Elon Musk's Lawyer Accuses Microsoft of Abusing Twitter's API to ... - PCMag

Ghislaine Maxwell and Elon Musk attend the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter on March 2, 2014 in West Hollywood, California.

Kevin Mazur | vf14 | Wireimage | Getty Images

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Virgin Islands can serve a subpoena for Elon Musk to his electric car company Tesla, as part of the government's lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over the bank's ties to dead sexual trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The ruling came days after lawyers for the USVI government told Judge Jed Rakoff they had been unable to serve the Tesla CEO personally with the subpoena demanding documents related to Epstein and JPMorgan.

The Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan for allegedly enabling and financially benefiting from Epstein's sex trafficking of young women. The late financier and sex criminal had been a customer of the bank from 1998 through 2013. JPMorgan denies any wrongdoing.

On April 28, the USVI issued a subpoena to Musk because of suspicion that Epstein "may have referred or attempted to refer" Musk as a client to JPMorgan, according to a court filing Monday.

That subpoena demands that Musk turn over any documents showing communication involving him, JPMorgan and Epstein, as well as "all Documents reflecting or regarding Epstein's involvement in human trafficking and/or his procurement of girls or women for consensual sex."

Read more of CNBC's politics coverage:

The USVI said in a court filing Monday that an investigative firm it had retained had been unable to locate Musk to serve him in person with the subpoena, as is the norm.

The filing also said that a lawyer for Musk did not reply to a request that the attorney accept the subpoena for his client.

Rakoff, in his order Wednesday, authorized the USVI to "arrange alternative service of its Subpoena to Produce Documents by serving Elon Musk via service upon Tesla Inc.'s registered agent."

Musk didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The USVI also has issued similar subpoenas for documents related to Epstein and JPMorgan to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, former Disney executive Michael Ovitz, Hyatt Hotels executive chairman Thomas Pritzker and Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire real estate investor.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is scheduled to be deposed on May 26 for the lawsuit and for a related suit against the bank by a woman who says Epstein sexually abused her.

Muks in a tweet Monday night had blasted the idea of that he be given a subpoena in the case.

"This is idiotic on so many levels," Musk wrote on Twitter, which he bought and took private last year.

"That cretin never advised me on anything whatsoever," he wrote, referring to Epstein.

"The notion that I would need or listen to financial advice from a dumb crook is absurd," Musk added. "JPM let Tesla down ten years ago, despite having Tesla's global commercial banking business, which we then withdrew. I have never forgiven them."

In 2018, Epstein told The New York Times he had been advising Musk after the Securities and Exchange Commission opened a probe into Musk's comments about taking Tesla private. A Tesla spokesperson told The Times, "It is incorrect to say that Epstein ever advised Elon on anything."

Epstein killed himself in August 2019, a month after federal authorities arrested him on an indictment charging him with child sex trafficking. He had previously pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state charge of soliciting sex from an underage girl.

Before his fall from grace, Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, socialized with many rich and powerful people, among them former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, as well as Britain's Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles III.

Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in late 2021 in federal court in Manhattan of procuring underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Maxwell was sentenced in June 2022 to 20 years in prison.

Musk in July 2020 replied to a Twitter post that showed him posing for a photo next to a smiling Maxwell.

"Don't know Ghislaine at all," Musk wrote. "She photobombed me once at a Vanity Fair party several years ago. Real question is why VF invited her in the first place."

The New York Times, in a 2022 article detailing that photo, reported that a Vanity Fair staff member who had stood next to both Maxwell and Musk at the party said that "the pair chatted."

"Ms. Maxwell asked Mr. Musk if there were a way to remove oneself from the internet and encouraged Mr. Musk to destroy the internet; Mr. Musk demurred," The Times reported, citing the staffer, who shared contemporaneous notes of the encounter.

"Ms. Maxwell then asked Mr. Musk why aliens hadn't yet made contact with humanity, to which Mr. Musk replied that all civilizations eventually end including Maxwell's hypothetical alien one and raised the possibility that humans are living in a simulation."

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Elon Musk subpoena in Epstein-JPMorgan lawsuit can be served to Tesla, judge rules - CNBC

Elon Musk, after dramatically slashing s headcount following his takeover of the social platform, said the company will try to rehire some of them acknowledging that the job cuts were too deep.

Musk has slashed Twitters headcount by 80%, from 7,800 to about 1,500, as he has attempted to cut costs and get the company in the black. Some people who were let go probably shouldnt have been, Musk said during an interview with CNBC anchor David Faber following the 2023 Tesla annual shareholder meeting Tuesday at the car makers headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Desperate times call for desperate measures Unfortunately, if you do it fast, there are some babies who will be thrown out [with the bathwater], Musk said. Twitter now will probably try to rehire some of the employees that were let go, he said.

Musk spoke about Linda Yaccarino, the ex-NBCUniversal exec he just hired as CEO of Twitter, joining the company, saying that Linda will operate the company and I will build products.

Twitter is very much an advertising-dependent business, and Linda is obviously great at that, Musk said. My skills and interests are in technology.

About the dire financial situation the company was facing, Musk said, It was really a very challenging situation when the Twitter deal closed. He said the company had negative $3 billion cash flow and just $1 billion in cash on hand. After Twitters board fought Musks takeover bid, it took him to court to hold him to the terms of his offer: Basically they had a gun to my head saying, No, you must acquire us!'

Faber asked Musk about the tech moguls tweets that lend credence to conspiracy theories, including Musks Monday evening tweet in which he said, Soros reminds me of Magneto, likening billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros to Marvels Jewish supervillain from the X-Men series. Musk claimed that Soros does not have good intentions: He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity. (Musks comments about Soros drew a rebuke from Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Soros often is held up by the far-right, using antisemitic tropes, as the source of the worlds problems, Greenblatt wrote on Twitter. To see @ElonMusk, regardless of his intent, feed this segment comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming Soros hates humanity is not just distressing, its dangerous: it will embolden extremists who already contrive anti-Jewish conspiracies and have tried to attack Soros and Jewish communities as a result.)

In the CNBC interview, Faber asked Musk why he would share such an opinion about Soros, given that Twitter advertisers or Tesla owners may object to it. This is freedom of speech Im allowed to say what I want, Musk replied. People are calling you an antisemite for the Soros comment, Faber said. Musk said he is not an antisemite, adding, Im like a pro-semite, if anything.

Faber continued to press the point: Do your tweets hurt [Tesla]? Or are there advertisers on Twitter [for which] Linda Yaccarino will come [to you] and say, You gotta stop. I cant get these ads because of some of the things you tweet? Musk, after a pause, said, You know, Im reminded of a scene in The Princess Bride, great movie, where [Mandy Patinkins character, Inigo Montoya] confronts the person who kills his father. And he says, Offer me money. Offer me power. I dont care.'

Faber responded, So you just dont care. Musk replied, Ill say what I want to say, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.

On Friday (May 12), the mega-billionaire announced that he hired Yaccarino, formerly head of ad sales at NBCUniversal, as CEO. Yaccarino, slated to start at Twitter by the end of June, on Saturday tweeted about the appointment, Thank you @elonmusk! Ive long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. Im excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!

At Twitter, Yaccarino will head up business operations, including ad sales, while Musk will remain executive chair and CTO, overseeing product, software and system operations. Musk, of course, will remain sole owner and decision-maker about Twitter. Hes also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX; Musk told Faber that he gets about six hours of sleep per night.

Twitters ad revenue, according to Musk, plummeted by as much as 50%after he closed the takeover in October 2022. Musk has valued Twitter at $20 billion, less than half the $44 billion price tag when he bought it.

Advertisers have been skittish about Musks mercurial decisions in running Twitter, as well as his sometimes bizarre tweets. That includes the decision by Musk a self-described free-speech absolutist to reinstate thousands of formerly banned Twitter accounts, including Donald Trumps. And Musk, claiming he wanted to democratize the previously corrupt blue check-mark system, partially eliminated Twitters legacy verification program; the company now grants any paying Twitter Blue subscriber a verified check-mark.

In his CNBC appearance, Musk said, Weve lost some advertisers on Twitter because of Community Notes, the platforms crowdsourced fact-checking system, when an inaccuracy has been appended to an advertisers post using Community Notes and they get mad and stop advertising.

During the roughly one-hour interview, Musk discussed Teslas business he said the company will start running advertising after historically shunning it and that its cars likely will achieve autonomous driving later in 2023 and spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX.

Twitter recently has been in the headlines afterTucker Carlson, following his ouster at Fox News, claimed he will launch a version of his cable show on the platform. Musk shortly afterward tweeted that Twitter does not have a deal of any kind whatsoever with Carlson and that he is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators. Carlson was informed by one of Fox Corp.s board members that his ouster was a condition of Fox News $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Variety reported. Fox News is still paying Carlsons $20 million annual salary; if the network tries to block Carlson from launching the show on Twitter, the host is prepared to sue Fox News or watch the network implode attempting to challenge free speech, a source told Variety.

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Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Try to Rehire Some of the 6,300 Employees He Fired, Defends Comparing Soros to Magneto - Variety