Former Twitter CEO talks Musk takeover, censorship and AI threat
In an interview with Breaking Points, Jack Dorsey discusses Elon Musk, Twitter controversies, freedom of speech and the potential of artificial intelligence.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has one interview with Breaking Points in his first media appearance since he stepped down from the social media giant in 2021.
Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the controversies surrounding it, Dorsey also spoke about censorship battles with governments, his take on Twitter’s role in the free speech debate, and the future of artificial intelligence technology.
Dorsey said he was happy when Musk took steps to get more involved with Twitter.
“From the beginning I had hoped for that for years [Musk] would do, and I have often asked him to at least join our board. But when he decided to make an offer for the company, or join the board of directors and then make an offer for the company…it felt great,” said Dorsey.
“Elon is our number one user… He deeply understood the platform.”
While Musk had “the opportunity to pull out” after his brawl with the company, Dorsey said this “set off a dynamic where [Musk] had to be very hasty” and make quick decisions that were “not fully thought through”.
“It all looked pretty reckless, but I’m confident he’ll work it out,” said Dorsey.
Free speech debate
Musk has adopted a policy that allows anything to exist on the platform as long as it is legally allowed. According to Dorsey, this gave rise to countries such as India and Turkey to request information and censorship from Twitter.
Dorsey added that India, Nigeria and Turkey had threatened to shut down Twitter unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts, an accusation the Indian government dismissed as an “outright lie”.
As for the Twitter files — a trove of documents released late last year detailing pressure from companies and governments to censor content — Dorsey said some of what came out was “questionable” but added a lot of the information, “I never saw it”.
“I was surprised by the level of involvement with government agencies,” he said, but concluded that his employees “generally did the right thing,” especially during the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop.
AI: Regulation or reward?
Since the birth of Open Source AI in recent years, some analysts have sounded the alarm about the potential dangers and the stark effects it could have on societies around the world. Dorsey said pausing AI is unrealistic, at least not on an international scale.
“I think it’s absolutely critical that we all have access to these technologies and that people can build on them and that we can actually see how they work,” he said.
However, regulation is needed as AI becomes “trendy,” he said, noting that the existence of open-source ecosystems has always been a threat.
“There’s a balancing effect of people doing the right thing and looking for ways to protect overall technology and ultimately protect humanity,” Dorsey said.
He expressed skepticism about the benefit of technologies like Metaverse and other virtual reality platforms, but admitted, “The whole world is moving in this direction.”
“I hope we have an honest conversation about some of the downsides around more and more social distancing [technology]Dorsey said.