(LifeSiteNews) — As the dust begins to settle over Elon Musk’s appointment of a new Twitter CEO, two questions remain: Who is Linda Yaccarino? And why has Musk chosen her?
The “who” is well-known. Linda Yaccarino’s well-documented position as chairwoman of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) “future of work” taskforce has been widely shared. But before we revisit her record in another article, including her many statements in favor of BlackRock-style “woke” corporatism, let us look at the “why.”
READ: Elon Musk hires World Economic Forum executive to replace him as Twitter CEO
X marks the spot
In an hour-long interview with David Faber, posted on May 16, Musk effectively explained why Linda Yaccarino is the new CEO.
There are several practical reasons, and one or two less obvious ones. Before we read between the lines, let’s look at the lines themselves.
As Forbes reported in early April, Elon Musk has big plans for Twitter.
Musk has indicated he hopes to transform Twitter/X into a wide-ranging service akin to China’s WeChat, telling a Morgan Stanley conference last month he wants his app “to become the biggest financial institution in the world.”
Musk said at the time he wanted X to become a peer-to-peer mobile payment platform where users can earn interest on their cash like at a bank, previously suggesting he wants his app to include a glut of services including ride-hailing and food delivery.
He spoke of his “vision for X” in the interview. At around the 37-minute mark of his interview with Faber he says: “My overall vision for X or Twitter is to be a cybernetic collective mind for humanity.”
This is a startling admission, and one which recalls Musk’s fanciful Neuralink project, reminiscent of the fusion of humanity with machines so beloved by techno-fantasists such as Yuval Noah Harari.
Aside from this science fiction, there is science fact. Elon Musk intends to expand “Twitter” into “X Corp,” fusing artificial intelligence with a whole-life app. This is a model for a “cybernetic collective mind” that is unquestionably realistic given his wealth and technology. What is in question is the “for humanity” aspect.
This helps us to understand why he would hire an advertising executive with Yaccarino’s credentials. There are two reasons. One is in the lines, the other between them.
UPDATE (04/22/23): Twitter has inexplicably removed its ‘government-funded media’ label from Canada’s CBC and NPR, with neither using their accounts despite Elon Musk seeming to backtrack on his decision to promote transparency around their funding.
That means, after what appeared to be a victory, our campaign is far from over.
Please sign and share the petition today!
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UPDATE (04/18/2023): The CBC — Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — is reeling after Elon Musk finally applied the ‘Government-funded Media’ label to its Twitter page on Sunday in a welcome victory for people like you who used LifePetitions.com to call for this transparency.
The CBC, which receives about $1.24 billion in public funding every year, lashed out at the move yesterday, announcing it would ‘pause’ its use of Twitter and insisting that the government provides less than 70% of its funding.
Elon Musk has wryly inserted “69%” beside the “Government-funded Media” Twitter label in response.
Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re “less than 70% government-funded”, so we corrected the label pic.twitter.com/lU1EWf76Zu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2023
The broadcaster denys that the Canadian government wields any influence over its editorial decisions, but this claim may have been undermined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s remarkably swift and public defense of the CBC in the wake of Twitter’s decision.
Trudeau claimed yesterday that the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre was trying to “attack a foundational Canadian institution” when, like you, he petitioned Elon Musk to label the CBC appropriately.
The Prime Minister appeared inconsolable yesterday, which speaks volumes for how useful the CBC was and is to his office.
Thank you for taking part in this LifePetition to Elon Musk – this victory shows once again that people-power matters.
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Elon Musk is taking unprecedented steps for free-speech advocates by exposing state-sponsored media for their lies and agendas — including the BBC and NPR.
The time is NOW while the trend is hot to ask that Elon Musk also label Canada’s CBC for what it is: state-sponsored media and a propaganda machine of the radical left.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre this week informed Musk that the public broadcaster receives the “vast majority of its funding” from the federal government.
CBC/Radio Canada received a whopping $1.24 billion in government funding in 2021-2022.
Now that Elon Musk is taking massive swings at the leftist mainstream media outlets like BBC and NPR it is time for Canadians to remind him of what’s happening up here.
In fact, Musk just DESTROYED a BBC reporter live on air in a widely televised “Twitter Spaces” interview.
Will Elon Musk also take aim at the CBC? WE MUST LET HIM KNOW THAT THE CBC IS A CORRUPT STATE-SPONSORED ARM OF THE ANTI-FREEDOM TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT.
War has been waged by Elon Musk against the mainstream media — we cannot let Canada’s biggest propaganda machine operate unnoticed!
Look at just some of the headlines in these agenda pieces proudly published by the CBC:
CLIMATE ALARMISM: “Researchers need help to determine which birds are most at risk from climate change.”
PRO LGBT AGENDA: “These kids’ books depicting ‘joyful, queer stories’ are being censored in Hungary and Russia.”
PRO TRANSGENDER AGENDA: “Two-spirit, trans, non-binary, gender diverse people face ‘exceptional barriers to overcome’: Manitoba artist”
ANTI-FREEDOM: “Conservative opposition to mandatory vaccinations is ‘irresponsible’ and ‘dangerous,’ says Trudeau.”
PRO EXPERIMENTAL VACCINE: “Here’s a science-backed approach to timing your next dose.”
AND SO MUCH MORE REPORTED BY LIFESITENEWS!
Now is the time to act — tell Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, to EXPOSE the CBC for the pro-Trudeau agenda-carrying propaganda machine that it is.
***SIGN: TWITTER MUST LABEL THE CBC AS STATE-SPONSORED MEDIA NOW***
Follow the money
The first reason is one Musk cites himself – money. Twitter had “$1 billion in the bank, $3 billion in annual losses” when he took over. He describes it as being teleported into a nosediving plane on fire with no working controls. After firing half the staff and losing some $40 million in advertising revenue due to community notes correcting “two major advertisers,” Musk needs Twitter to make money.
At 27 minutes into the Faber interview, he says: “I think Linda Yaccarino is gonna be great. Twitter is very much an advertising dependent business. Linda is obviously incredible with that and she’s just a great executive in general.”
READ: Elon Musk defends criticism of George Soros, shrugs off financial risks of sharing his views
Musk says she will run Twitter: “My skills and interests are in technology. I’ll continue to play a role advancing the software – product stuff, basically. The general idea is Linda will operate the company, and I will build products.”
Time is money
Musk’s decision combines his need for a “great executive” with the limited currency at his disposal – time.
“Time is the only true currency,” he says. In the future he will be “devoting a lot more time to Tesla – especially on the AI development.”
So a great executive, a need to spend more time on AI, and a product called “X” which will turn Twitter into an “everything app.” OK.
Executive decisions
To read between the lines a little, we can see something of Musk’s ability to assess the quality of an executive. His remarks on this issue are revealing.
This is how Musk describes the President of the United States: “Someone who is effectively the chief executive officer of the USA – it actually matters if they are a good executive officer.”
He wishes for a “normal person” in charge, one who could achieve things – regardless of their personal ideology: “It’s not simply a matter of sharing your moral beliefs – but are they good at getting things done?”
Elon Musk voted for Joe Biden, presumably on the basis of Joe Biden’s stated beliefs. He did not connect his obvious disappointment with the man he chose for CEO USA, and how this might reflect on his choice of that for Twitter. Biden cannot “get things done.” Yet Musk chose him.
Musk chose Biden for his policies but found him ineffectual in practice. He says he has chosen Yaccarino for her ability as an executive – to change things practically for the good of X Corp. He says nothing of her “moral beliefs,” which include praise for another effective CEO – Larry Fink, of BlackRock.
WEF connections
The parallels between Musk’s ambition – a “cybernetic collective mind for humanity” – and those of the more lurid fantasies displayed at the World Economic Forum are obvious. The difference is that Musk’s ambitions are feasible – to a point.
The mind/machine technology is not currently possible and a breakthrough seems unlikely. What is possible is a worldwide information system transmitted by Starlink satellites powering an app for everything. Musk has acquired Laskie, a job search app, and spoke of his plan to use X Corp to disrupt banking.
The cost-benefit analysis of free speech
His remarks about artificial intelligence lead us once more between the lines. Why is he defending “free speech,” even when it may cost him money?
Musk stated his Tesla real-world AI is miles ahead of Google’s efforts. He is peerless in the field. He now seeks to lead LLM (large language model) AI once again.
ChatGPT is the most recognizable iteration of LLM artificial intelligence. It is not “intelligent” as it is not self-aware. Yet, together with Google’s “Bard” and the Chinese “Ernie,” it uses human input to train algorithms to generate human-like answers.
READ: OpenAI CEO calls for gov’t regulation of new technology that could ‘cause significant harm’
These models rely on human input. Musk, who donated $50 million dollars to OpenAI, laments that the chatbot it created is now in private hands. ChatGPT was supposed to remain non-profit and open-source, meaning its code would be available to anyone.
The best AI models have the richest human input. The richest human wants the best AI model. This is the reason he is going to defend your “free speech” – he needs it to train a better cybernetic mind.
Pro-human?
Musk regrets having allowed OpenAI and its ChatGPT to go private. He speaks also of his disagreement with Larry Page, the Google magnate, on the dangers of AI.
Musk tried to warn Page of the danger to humanity of AI. He says Page was “cavalier” about the threat to humanity, and returned with a slur.
“[Page] calling me a ‘specie-ist’” was the reason Musk stopped seeing him socially, he says.
Why did Page invent a new bigot-slur for Musk? “For being pro-human consciousness instead of machine consciousness.”
There are errors in human input which he hopes to correct in real time. This is the community notes system in which users attach corrections to inaccurate information. Musk says this system has cost him tens of millions of dollars in ad revenue. If true, it indicates the cost-benefit analysis which underpins the concept.
“You can think of community notes as like an error correction on an informational network,” he says.
Musk does not think the 2020 election was stolen. This is an error he said will be corrected by these notes. These notes exist not only to verify information to users, but crucially to feed his AI model with “error-corrected” data.
The Hunter Biden laptop will teach your future robot overlord about election interference, but it will learn that vote fraud was insignificant in the 2020 election. Noted.
Whither goest thou?
Elon Musk’s decision-making over Twitter can only be understood in the context of his ambitions. He wishes to create the leading artificial intelligence on the planet, and he wishes to combine this with an app which will involve every aspect of your life. He has the technology.
With Yaccarino, he has an advertising executive with the right credentials to lure the big spenders back to his platform. He already has the free speech he needs to complete his language-learning recipe. Yaccarino is there to bring in the big business players which will assist in the commercialization of the platform. X Corp is his fusion of commerce, banking, and human interaction with a global cybernetic mind.
READ: AI is becoming a tool for control. What you can do to resist technocratic tyranny
I think it is this power, and not her “moral beliefs,” which will shape future Twitter. Your “free speech” is probably vouchsafed as a valuable ingredient. It is vital to the success of his business model, which is a model of human intelligence. When he has built his model, he will have no more use for it.
Elon Musk wants the world. This is why he disdains fame and fortune. He is number one in personal wealth, his Tesla in pole position in real-world AI. He envisions – this year or next – that millions of Tesla cars will become autonomous robotaxis, ferrying passengers for revenue while their owners sleep. Something similar is planned for X Corp, which seeks to mine the largest data pool every assembled to build the next generation of artificial intelligence.
Elon Musk thinks he must be in charge of this project, as he is the only one involved in the game with sufficient concern for humanity to guide it. He is not presenting himself as the defender of speech. He imagines himself as our savior, and he means to safeguard us by means of his peerless dream machine.
This is the world he hopes to bring about. To do this, he must expand Twitter to absorb the functions of every one of its rivals. He is serious about this.
This is the reason he has brought in Linda Yaccarino.
The next part tomorrow will be all about her.