Tesla Inc. Chief Government Officer Elon Musk visited the White Home for the primary time throughout President Joe Biden’s time period in September, a distinction to his a number of journeys below the earlier two administrations.
Musk was within the West Wing on Sept. 13, in response to White Home customer logs launched in late December. The billionaire didn’t meet with Biden, which whom he has had a tense relationship, however as an alternative sat down with senior administration aides engaged on expertise coverage to debate synthetic intelligence, in response to a White Home official.
Musk was in Washington to attend an AI summit with lawmakers and executives on the US Capitol.
The White Home assembly with Musk, reported earlier Wednesday by NBC Information, is considered one of many Biden’s employees have held with stakeholders as he “developed essentially the most vital motion any authorities on the earth has taken on AI security, safety and belief,” White Home spokeswoman Robyn Patterson stated in an announcement.
“The Biden-Harris administration has been clear with tech leaders in regards to the want for firms to make sure their merchandise are protected earlier than they’re launched to the general public,” she added.
Musk, who additionally runs Area Exploration Applied sciences Corp. and owns X, previously Twitter, has an AI startup known as xAI. His representatives didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for touch upon Wednesday night time.
The go to was Musk’s solely journey to the White Home throughout Biden’s presidency, the White Home official stated. In distinction, he visited the manager mansion on a number of events throughout the Obama and Trump administrations.
The distinction is a sign of the chilly relationship between Biden and Musk.
Musk — the world’s richest particular person, in response to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — has bristled on the president’s electrical car coverage, which he stated has snubbed Tesla in favor of firms like Basic Motors Co. which have unionized workforces.
He has accused Biden and his administration of being “biased” towards his firm, citing a 2021 EV occasion on the White Home that excluded Tesla.
Musk stated in November — greater than two months after his White Home go to — that he voted for Biden in 2020 however couldn’t see himself doing so once more in 2024.
Biden administration officers have met with Musk beforehand, however not on the White Home. Senior local weather adviser John Podesta and infrastructure adviser Mitch Landrieu sat down with Musk final January to debate methods to advance EV manufacturing.
Biden for lengthy stretches of his presidency refused to say Tesla whereas touting his EV coverage, although he provided uncommon reward for the corporate final 12 months for opening a part of its charging community to different EVs. Nonetheless, Biden has voiced help for the United Auto Staff union’s effort to manage Tesla, one thing Musk has strongly resisted.
The White Home additionally condemned an antisemitic put up Musk made on X as “abhorrent” and “unacceptable.”
The president and Musk have at occasions traded juvenile insults.
Musk in 2022 known as Biden “a moist sock puppet in human type” after he was not invited to attend a gathering of enterprise leaders on the White Home.
Later that 12 months, Biden responded to Musk’s gloomy predictions in regards to the US financial system by saying “numerous luck on his journey to the moon.”