Elon Musk believes in a manned flight to Mars within seven to eight years

Last day of the Viva Technology 2024 show, this Saturday May 25, the only one open to the general public, Porte de Versailles in Paris. Last year, the event attracted 150,000 visitors according to its organizers, in particular thanks to the presence of Elon Musk, back this year, but by videoconference.

Elon Musk, the boss of Space X and Tesla, returned differently this year to Viva Tech: by videoconference, to talk about the conquest of Mars and artificial intelligence, in particular.

Same place, same event, almost a year later. Thursday May 23, we would have thought we were back during Viva Technology 2023, with one difference: this year, it is not in the flesh on the stage of the Dôme de Paris, but on a giant screen, that Elon Musk appeared, in front of a packed room: 5,000 people who came to attend this question-and-answer session, with the richest man in the world, alone in front of his cell phone, smiling, even laughing, from the first seconds, obviously at ease, and on familiar or even conquered ground.

The reason for this remote participation? His son’s graduation, a few hours later in the United States, which he didn’t want to miss.

The public was waiting for Elon Musk, particularly on artificial intelligence, and he was not disappointed. Indeed, from the outset, the South African who has just launched Grok, his own competitor to chatGPT, directly tackles OpenAI which he nevertheless helped to create before withdrawing from it.

Elon Musk criticizes the parent company of chatGPT for directing the training – and therefore the development of its AI, by favoring “politically correct”. Musk then sets himself up as a champion of the truth, without convincing everyone in the room. “The truth is not always popular”he says, explaining, at the same time, that it is the best way to prevent AI from causing – one day – the end of humanity.

“If the worst-case scenario comes true, we are in trouble.”

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Tesla and owner of

at Viva Technology 2024

If we survive, what will become of us? “Are our jobs going to disappear?”, asks a woman in the audience. In the best-case scenario, AI and robots will satisfy all our needs “in goods and services”he specifies, which, according to him, will pose another problem:

“If computers and robots can do everything better than you, will your life still have meaning? In the best case scenario, this will be the fundamental question. All jobs will become optional. If you still want to work and make it a hobby, you can Now, if the worst-case scenario comes true, we are in trouble. This is why AI is also his biggest fear, as he will admit at the very end of the conference.

Of all Elon Musk’s activities, there was one that really made viewers’ eyes light up: when he talked about SpaceX and summed up his biggest hope in one word: Mars.

The red planet that he wants to make accessible to as many people as possible, with a surprisingly close timetable for his StarShip rocket: “If all goes well, the first StarShip rocket, unmanned, will land on Mars within five years. And I think we’ll take the first humans to the Moon probably within five years, and on Mars, I think, in less than 10 years. And therefore men on Mars by 2032.

Elon Musk may fascinate as much as disturb, but the entire Paris Dome has finished with his head in the stars.