Twitter Advertisers Return Says Elon Musk

Elon Musk announced that Twitter is regaining nearly all of the advertisers who departed after his acquisition of the social media platform last autumn. Musk expressed his ambition to transform Twitter into a “positive force for civilization.”

Speaking at a lively tech conference in Paris, Musk expressed confidence in Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s new CEO, stating that the majority of advertisers have either returned or expressed their intent to do so.

Yaccarino, previously in charge of ad sales at NBCUniversal, understands advertisers’ concerns, and Musk believes she will address them effectively. Musk, the buyer of Twitter last fall and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, commended Yaccarino’s capabilities.

Since Musk’s $44 billion takeover, he has downsized Twitter’s workforce to minimize losses and has pledged to safeguard free speech on the platform. He reiterated this commitment at the conference. However, advertisers left the company due to concerns about associating their ads with hate speech, disinformation, or controversial content.

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Musk emphasized how Twitter focuses on brand safety, ensuring that advertisers do not get linked to contentious material. He provided the example of Disney advertising a children’s movie and stated that Disney prefers their ads to display alongside all-ages content.

Earlier in the day, Musk met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who is actively pursuing Tesla to establish a large battery factory in France.

Musk, currently the world’s wealthiest individual, also dined in Paris with the second-richest person, Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury empire LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Combined, their net worth exceeds $430 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

During a lunch at Plénitude, a restaurant in LVMH’s Cheval Blanc hotel, Musk was accompanied by his mother and Arnault’s sons, Antoine and Alexandre. Antoine oversees communications, image, and environment at LVMH, while Alexandre holds a prominent position at LVMH-owned luxury jeweler Tiffany.

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Later at the tech conference, Antoine Arnault joined other French business executives on stage, posing questions to Elon Musk. Arnault inquired about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the advertising industry and humorously mentioned Tesla’s higher market capitalization compared to LVMH. He playfully asked Musk, “How much longer are you going to make us look so bad?”

“Valuations are a peculiar thing,” Musk replied.

Musk predicted that AI would likely be the most disruptive technology ever and reiterated his concerns about the potential catastrophic consequences of developing superhuman AI. He referenced the notion that such AI could pose a threat to humanity, emphasizing the importance of avoiding such outcomes.

Musk’s fascination with the future of artificial intelligence has led him to invest in the field and issue warnings about its existential risks. Although he co-founded OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, he was eventually pushed out due to a power struggle. Earlier this year, he established a new company called X.AI, aiming to create a truth-seeking AI model capable of understanding the universe.

Elon Musk concluded his remarks by acknowledging the hypothetical possibility of an “AI Armageddon” but expressed a desire to witness it while hoping not to cause it.