Smash Notes

What Did Elon Musk Pledge to Every Kid?

at 37:30

From the episode: Fired OpenAI Safety Researchers Speak Out + We Look Inside Pandora’s Box

Answer

Casey Newton says Elon Musk pledged on Monday to give one share of his company SpaceX to every kid in America next year. The offer arrived a day after Anthropic announced that it will commit 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund. In a response to that post, Elon Musk wrote that he recommends giving the shares directly to the public. Casey Newton says the story comes from PBS.

Casey Newton calls the pledge a heartwarming story as the holidays approached, and he introduces Elon Musk as a famous philanthropist and also the person who dismantled USAID. He asks why anyone would set up an organization to disperse the money when the shares could go directly to children. Kevin Roose loves the idea of a future SpaceX shareholder meeting with 10 million children in a room. Casey Newton says they all have something to say, and Kevin Roose says they are all voting on the proposals put forward by the board of SpaceX. Casey Newton calls that a beautiful idea. He tells Elon Musk that excitement about giving wealth directly to the public means Elon Musk is going to love the concept of taxes, and he offers to share more about taxes over DM.

Grokipedia·Elon Musk·Casey Newton

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