Elon Musk is holding a „super fun“ AI hackathon at his house*

New York, 9.2.2020

Right after the start of his EDM career**, Elon Musk announced that Tesla will be holding a „super fun“ AI hackathon at his home. In a tweet Musk wrote: „In about four weeks Tesla will be hosting a super fun AI party/hackathon at my house with the Tesla AI/Autopilot team. The invitations will be out soon.“

The hackathon will focus on the AI behind Tesla’s problematic AutoPilot feature, which has been reported to be erratically accelerated. Tesla has denied the allegations, but the hackathon suggests that the company at least wants to make AutoPilot more robust.

In advance of the hackathon announcement, Musk urged developers to join Tesla’s AI team, which he says reports directly to him.

Musk also announced that Tesla also accepts the challenge of building his own AI chips. According to Musk, Tesla is looking for top-notch chip designers to join the company’s Palo Alto and Austin teams.

Musk has apparently put his fears of artificial intelligence into perspective. He used to call it a potential existential threat if it wasn’t controlled. But now he is also aware of the opportunities that arise from the use of AI: „My actions, not just words, show how critically I view (benign) AI,“ wrote Musk.

*What is a hackathon?

A meeting where problems are worked out, new products are developed and solutions are programmed in small, creative groups and a relaxed atmosphere.

Traditionally, the hackathon comes from the software sector, although today hackathons are also formed to creatively solve technical problems in general, without being limited to software programming.

The task or problem is often about finding and programming a new application, apps or generally, solutions. Since the solution finding process takes place in a tight time frame of e.g. 24 or 48 hours, the participants often work in an unconventional way and without long breaks. At the end of the hackathon a finished prototype is ready.

**What is EDM ?

EDM is Electronic Dance Music. It is a commercialized techno variant and is produced accordingly for the mass market. US promoters have turned the success of techno into a lucrative business that is not about music or culture at all. Today, the big earners in Las Vegas are no longer magicians, but EDM stars like Tiesto or Calvin Harris.

„EDM DJs work with the simplest means. Their music consists only of breaks, everything is concentrated on the drops. What bothers me most is the circus around them: cake fights, confetti bombs, pyrotechnics. But it’s not about the music. I think it’s an insult to call it electronic dance music. (Producer Oliver Koletzki in „The World“)

Elon Musk now calls himself an EDM artist after he released the debut track ‚Don’t doubt your vibe‘ and announced this on Twitter. „I wrote the lyrics and sang the vocals!“

Musk said the track would be released on „Emo G Records“ who will post the four minute song on their website with pulsating electronic sounds overlapping with his vocals. The lyrics say: „Don’t doubt your vibe/because it’s right/do not doubt your vibe/because you are“.