Last night on HBO Real Time with Bill MaherThe host defended Elon Musk during a conversation with technology reporter Kara Swisher.
Swisher, who recently published his memoirs. Burn Book: a technological love storypresents the podcast Let’s go with Kara Swisher in addition to co-hosting the podcast Pivot.
During her conversation with Maher, Swisher implied that all the tech giants fear her reporting. “I think they’re a little scared,” he said, referring to people like Musk and Jeff Bezos.
She characterized many tycoons as “hugely narcissistic” and said that people around them praise them to the point that “you start to think of yourself as a god.”
Swisher says Musk doesn’t have a very high opinion of her and once said that her “voice is so shrill that only dogs can hear it.” [her]and [her] The heart is boiling with hatred.” Maher added that she “is a complicated guy,” to which Swisher quickly responded “what if she’s just not a complicated guy, he’s just a jerk, but go ahead?”, before she recovered a bit.
Maher responded by saying, “I can easily prove that it’s complicated,” referencing Musk’s Neuralink chip that helps a paralyzed man play video games with his mind and who owns a Tesla.
Swisher responded by saying that he likes those versions of Elon but that “it’s Twitter/X Elon that I have a problem with.” You can watch the clip above.
During another part of the conversation, Swisher said, “I don’t think you have to give anyone an out,” noting that tech giants like to claim they want to change the world, but it’s just a cover “for wanting to make money.”
He also said that he has high hopes for AI, but that it could also “go completely towards failure.” There aren’t enough protections, she says, adding: “We are the test dummies of the digital age.”