Elon Musk says he’s not dumb, doesn’t try to be dumb but is sometimes dumb in new interview

Elon Musk has confessed to making mistakes since the controversial $44bn purchase of Twitter, insisting that he is not dumb, tries not to be dumb, but is sometimes still dumb.

The world’s richest person spoke out at a Spaces event on Twitter in which he spelled out his vision for the company and tried to tackle the concerns of advertisers, many of whom have suspended business with the company because of the uncertainty caused by his takeover.

“The intent is not to do dumb things, we are not operationally dumb, we are aspirationally not dumb but we still do dumb things,” he said on Wednesday.

“There is an element of nothing ventured nothing gained, if we don’t try bold moves how will we make great improvements? We have to be adventuresome here and we will make big leaps and radical improvements but they come with some risks. The key is to be extremely agile, when we make a dumb move we correct it quickly that is what really matters.”

Mr Musk tried to reassure advertisers and brands on the call that his new Advisory Council to moderate content on Twitter would “represent a diverse set of viewpoints in the US and internationally.”

“In the short term I only got the keys to the building a week ago Friday, I am moving pretty fast here, but it takes a moment to rewrite the sub stack,” he said. “The rate of evolution of Twitter will be an immense step-change to what it has been in the past if nothing else I am a technologist and I can move technology fast and that is what will happen at Twitter.”

Mr Musk, who bought the platform for $44bn last month when faced with a court case after trying to back out of the purchase, told the call that he wanted Twitter to add banking features.

“We want to make the system as useful as possible, the more useful and entertaining it is the more people will use it,” he said.

Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months.

We will keep what works & change what doesn’t.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022

Mr Musk also urged automotive advertisers to stay on the platform ad insisted that Twitter would not show any favour to Tesla, of which he is the CEO.

“I would encourage car manufacturers to continue advertising on Twitter and for their Twitter handles to be more active and their CEOs and CMOs to be more active. Brands should tweet more, executives should tweet more, and I would encourage people to be more adventurous, that is certainly what I have done on Twitter with Tesla, myself and SpaceX, and it has worked out quite well,” he said. “I am not going to do anything that is advantageous to Tesla as that will turn off other automotive advertisers, it has to be a level playing field or we won’t get automotive advertisers. We are going to try and be as fair as possible.”