On March 20th, Elon Musk was beamed remotely in the “Economic Summit of China Development Forum 2021” to have a dialogue with Professor XUE Qikun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and President of Southern University of Science and Technology, on the topic of “The Next Disruptive Innovation”.
The following is the information sorted out according to Musk’s speech via the interpreter.
Technology
Artificial intelligence is an indispensable part of technological development, just like the digital medicine used in COVID-19 vaccine development. Self-driving cars, which is forthcoming soon, will reshape transportation. At the same time, 3D tunnels can also ease traffic jams. With technology development, life can go out of the earth to ensure the continuation of human consciousness.
Higher Education System
Physics is very important. It tells how the world works. Physics could be taught in a much more engaging manner. It is necessary to let students know why they need to learn, rather than simply imparting knowledge, and asking them to get a degree for finding a job. Remote education may work better because the content can be replayed. The time in class should be left for interaction and discussion. Education should be a two-way interactive discussion rather than one-way indoctrination.
Tesla University
Tesla once considered providing teaching in robot programming, because modern factories lack talents in this field. This idea is feasible.
Artificial Intelligence
Dealing with AI is one of the most important challenges that humanity faces, it could potentially be the most. The regulation and symbiosis of AI are very important. AI needs to be regulated, especially when it comes to human security.
Current Sino-US Relationship
The two sides should establish greater mutual trust. The issue of corporate espionage has raised some concerns, like the US government planned to shut down TikTok. But this kind of concern is unnecessary, and lessons should be learned from it. In general, even if there is corporate espionage, it doesn’t matter if the information is not that important.
Whether it is a Chinese company or a US company, if a commercial company did engage in spying, the negative effects to that company would be extremely bad. If Tesla used cars to spy in China, it will be shut down. There’s a very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information. Commercial companies attach great importance to confidentiality. I hope we can have a future in which we trust each other.