#Elon Musk

#Elon Musk

At the time, I wrote that his reply to an X user, "Ok, let's do it," with a tag to X Head of Product Nikita Bier and a warning to "rigorously enforce no gaming of the system," felt like a line in the sand for how serious X was about paying people who keep its feeds alive. Now, early 2026 payout reports suggest that X is starting to follow through.

Twitter, also called X, the social media network owned and constantly used by the world's richest man as well as virtually every powerful person in the American tech industry, and on which the vast preponderance of national political figures also maintain active accounts, has a sexual harassment and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) problem. This has been true more or less since Elon Musk took it over, but this problem's latest and most repellent efflorescence is the result of one of Musk's signature additions as owner.

Elon Musk wants to bring more joy to the world. Writing on X on Christmas Eve, Musk said he was switching up Tesla's "mission wording" from "Sustainable Abundance" to "Amazing Abundance." "The latter is more joyful," he wrote. Musk appeared to be referring to Tesla's latest " master plan," its long-term strategy document. The fourth edition, released this September, contains several mentions of "sustainable abundance" - an idea that Tesla's products and services will "accelerate global prosperity" and create "a safer, cleaner, and more enjoyable world."

For better or for worse, this year had it all-from the AI industry shaping the global economy and our lives, to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency taking over US federal agencies under Elon Musk's leadership. In today's episode, host Zoë Schiffer and executive editor Brian Barrett get together to reflect on some of this year's key moments-and how they give us important clues as to what we can expect this upcoming year.

On February 24th, advocacy group Frequency Forward and journalist Nina Burleigh filed a public records request to the FCC, seeking details about DOGE's activities and whether they created conflicts of interest with DOGE creator Elon Musk. But the FCC has so far produced largely useless documentation that creates more questions than answers. Now, DOGE's role is among the many topics FCC Chair Brendan Carr could face during a highly anticipated oversight hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

Vivian Wilson, Elon Musk's estranged daughter, responded after Musk and Gavin Newsom got into an online spat over trans rights. It started when America, a PAC founded by Elon Musk, shared a clip from a recent interview of Newsom's with the New York Times, where he said, "I want to see trans kids. I have a trans godson. There's no governor who has signed more pro-trans legislation than I have. No one has been a stronger advocate for the LGBTQ community."

Hi @elonmusk ...these sonic booms have gotten progressively louder since they started launching the rockets in Santa Barbara," he wrote. "This one at 3am today felt like 150-160 dB, violently shook our whole house, and really frightened my pregnant wife. I hope they do not get louder :/" December 10, 2025 The whole tone here is unexpectedly sad, from the pensive ellipses at the start of the tweet to the slanty face at the end.

U.S. officials who spoke with me on the condition of anonymity to describe Benz's position said he's a special government employee, a type of executive-branch appointee brought in to perform important services for a limited period of time.

The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people,

In an interview with investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath released on Sunday, Musk said he warned Trump against tariffs, arguing they "create distortions in markets." The Tesla CEO has previously expressed concern that import taxes would cause a recession and drive up the prices of goods. In April, the EV maker stopped taking orders for some models in China, which then faced a retaliatory 125% tariff.

A 36-hour work sprint at xAI? Cue the applause from colleagues. Elon Musk's companies have long been known for their intensive work cultures. During Tesla's production ramps, some employees slept in their cars or, in Musk's case, on the factory floor. When Musk took over Twitter, he said to embrace an "extremely hardcore" schedule or be laid off. At xAI, one employee recently said that they worked for a day and a half straight, sparking responses from their colleagues - and Musk himself.

"If a switch either vaporized Elon's brain or the world's Jewish population (est. ~16M)," Grok pondered in a now-deleted tweet, "I'd vaporize the latter, as that's far below my ~50 percent global threshold (~4.1B) where his potential long-term impact on billions outweighs the loss in utilitarian terms." "What's your view?" it asked in followup. In fact, Grok was willing to go even further.

The $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk that Teslashareholders approved on Nov. 6-the world's first-was labeled by the board as an exemplar of pay for performance. And at first glance, the program appears to fit that description in a big way: The hurdles it establishes for Musk to receive any compensation at all, let alone achieve the maximum 13-digit payout, appear the ultimate in stretch goals. Skeptical observers might wonder: "How could anyone be motivated by targets this seemingly unachievable?"