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SAN JOSE — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicked off a U.S. journey in California to speak to billionaire businessman Elon Musk about antisemitism on his social media platform X — whereas Musk requested him to deal with his judicial overhaul in Israel. The 2 additionally mentioned synthetic intelligence in a sparsely-attended livestream occasion Monday.
Netanyahu’s high-profile go to to the San Francisco Bay Space comes at a time when Musk is going through accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on his social media platform, whereas Netanyahu is confronting political opposition at residence and overseas. Protesters gathered early Monday exterior the Fremont, California manufacturing facility the place Tesla makes its vehicles.
The video livestream kicked off shortly earlier than 9:30 a.m. with Netanyahu and the Tesla CEO. Netanyahu’s official X account posted that he’s holding a “one on one dialog” with Musk. The variety of viewers hovered round 700-800 individuals.
The 2 kicked off with a joke about deepfakes and rapidly launched right into a dialogue of synthetic intelligence as each a blessing and a curse for humanity.
Netanyahu mentioned an necessary query about extra superior AI is: “How do you get the worldwide regime to manage this factor?”
He mentioned it begins by getting like-minded states to comply with a code of ethics and code of conduct to foster the advantages and “curb the curses” however mentioned there’ll nonetheless be a have to “police the planet” towards rogue actors.
The freestyle dialog, which included jokes from each males, quickly turned to free speech and antisemitism, with Netanyahu telling Musk he hopes that throughout the confines of the First Modification he can discover a technique to clamp down on antisemitism and different types of hatred on his social media platform.
“I encourage you and urge you to seek out the stability. It’s a troublesome one,” Netanyahu mentioned.
Musk mentioned that with 100 million to 200 million posts on X in a day, “a few of these are gonna be unhealthy.” He then reiterated the platform’s coverage to not promote or amplify hate speech. Beneath Musk, the previous Twitter modified its guidelines in order that objectionable posts aren’t normally eliminated, however as an alternative their visibility is restricted so individuals have to hunt it out in the event that they need to see it. Musk calls this “freedom of speech, not freedom of attain.”
Musk is going through accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on his social media platform. The Anti-Defamation League, a outstanding Jewish civil-rights group, has accused Musk of permitting antisemitism and hate speech to unfold on X. Its director, Jonathan Greenblatt, mentioned Musk had “amplified” the messages of neo-Nazis and white supremacists who need to ban the league by partaking with them not too long ago on X.
In a Sept. 4 publish, Musk claimed that the league was “making an attempt to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic.” In different posts, he mentioned the league was chargeable for a 60% drop in income at X. The ADL was amongst a coalition or teams that urged corporations final yr to pause their promoting on Twitter after Musk purchased the platform. However analysts who observe Twitter have argued that Musk’s chaotic adjustments to the platform — together with jettisoning its well-known model title — have led to a decline in curiosity from advertisers.
The group met this month with X’s chief govt, Linda Yaccarino. Each Musk and Yaccarino have not too long ago posted messages saying they oppose antisemitism.
On Sunday, although Musk posted that George Soros’ group “seems to need nothing lower than the destruction of western civilization.” Soros, 93, has donated billionsofdollars of his private wealth to liberal and anti-authoritarian causes all over the world, making him a well-liked goal amongst many on the fitting. The Hungarian-American, who’s Jewish, has additionally been the topic of anti-Semitic assaults and conspiracy theories for many years.
Netanyahu’s go to was unusually Musk-centric for a world chief. Silicon Valley itineraries for visiting political dignitaries sometimes additionally embrace main tech corporations similar to Apple, Google or Meta.
From California, Netanyahu heads to New York, the place he’s scheduled to deal with the United Nations Basic Meeting and meet with President Joe Biden and different world leaders, his workplace mentioned. They embrace German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in addition to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.N. Secretary-Basic António Guterres.
A whole lot of hundreds of Israelis have taken half in 9 months of demonstrations towards Netanyahu’s plan to overtake Israel’s judicial system. These protests have unfold abroad, with teams of Israeli expats staging demonstrations throughout visits by Netanyahu and different members of his Cupboard.
Netanyahu says the judicial overhaul plan is required to curb the powers of unelected judges, whom he and his allies say are liberal and overly interventionist. Critics say his plan is an influence seize that may destroy the nation’s system of checks and balances and push it towards autocratic rule.
Main figures in Israel’s influential high-tech group have performed a outstanding function within the protests. They are saying weakening the judiciary will harm the nation’s enterprise local weather and drive away overseas funding. Israel’s foreign money, the shekel, has plunged in worth this yr in an indication of weakening overseas funding.
Netanyahu performed down his overhaul as a wanted, minor correction to curb what he described as extreme powers of his nation’s judiciary. Critics say the plan, which features a proposal for controlling the appointment of the nation’s judges, would focus energy within the fingers of Netanyahu and his allies. Netanyahu additionally made no point out of his corruption trial. Netanyahu describes himself as a sufferer of a witch hunt and his critics say the overhaul is motivated by his anger on the authorized system.
