In a two-hour interview with ex-Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin says Tesla founder Elon Musk can’t be stopped.
In a discussion on artificial intelligence (AI), Carlson asked President Putin when the AI empire would start, to which he replied, “You’re asking increasingly more complicated questions. To answer, you need to be an expert in big numbers.” He went on to say, “There are reports Elon Musk has already had a chip implanted in the human brain in the USA.”
In January this year, Elon Musk’s Neuralink said it had implanted one of its chips into a human brain for the first time. The chip, named Telepathy, is meant to enable control of phones or computers, just by thinking.
Related
When Carlson asked what Putin thought of that, he said, “Well, I think there’s no stopping Elon Musk. He will do as he sees fit. Nevertheless, you need to find some common ground with him, and search for ways to persuade him. I think he’s a smart person, I truly believe he is so you need to reach an agreement with him because this process needs to be formalised and subjected to certain rules.”
“Well, I think there’s no stopping Elon Musk. He will do as he sees fit.”
Vladimir Putin
But Putin said there was threat in the uncontrolled or unbridled use of AI and genetics, and the world will “have to reach an international agreement to regulate these things”.
Putin talks Ukraine conflict
Putin spent more than 30 minutes giving Carlson a history of Russia and Ukraine, claiming that parts of Ukraine belonged to Russia. He also claimed that Ukraine started the conflict in 2014, and said Russia hadn’t achieved its “aims yet” – one of them being “de-Nazification”.
Carlson, who repeatedly attempted to interrupt Putin throughout his monologue on history, asked Putin: “Why didn’t you make this case for the first 22 years as president that Ukraine wasn’t a real country?”
To which Putin said, “The Soviet Union was given a great deal of territory that had never belonged to it… Lenin the founder of the Soviet state… established Ukraine that way… “So in this sense, we have every reason to affirm that Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped at Stalin’s will.”
Carlson, who said he thought Putin’s talk of Russia’s history was a “filibustering technique”, concluded that Putin seemed sincere. “Vladimir Putin believes that Russia has a historic claim to parts of western Ukraine,” Carlson said.
Background
Carlson was ousted from his prime-time television spot in late 2023, after 14 years at the network. It’s unclear why the network and Carlson parted ways, but it appeared to be a surprise to Carlson, who reportedly ended his final show on Fox saying he would “be back Monday.”
Carlson announced the interview on February 7, saying “most Americans are not informed” about the war in Ukraine.
“We paid for this trip ourselves. We took no money from any government or group, nor are we charging people to see the interview, it is not behind the paywall. Anyone can watch the entire thing, shot live to tape and unedited,” he said, adding that Elon Musk had promised not to block the interview once posted to X.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
