Elon Musk was in Paris on Friday with his mother Maye and ex-wife Talulah Riley to meet the French president, have lunch with the second richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, and address a tech conference where he warned of the dangers of AI.
Later on Friday night, the group attended an event at the National Library.
Musk, 51, is in the middle of a European tour of sorts as leaders try to woo the Tesla boss and encourage investment in their country. On Thursday he was in Rome to meet with the Italian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister; the day later he met Emmanuel Macron for the second time in just over a month.
“Let’s work together!” the French president tweeted, using the hashtag: “#ChooseFrance.”
French officials hope to convince Musk to choose France to build his next Tesla gigafactory in Europe.
Elon Musk and his mother Maye leave their hotel in Paris on Friday night to go to the National Library
Musk and his mother get into their car Friday night
Talulah Riley, Musk’s ex-wife, changed into a brown spotted number for the Friday night event
Musk had lunch with Arnault, 74 — the CEO and controlling shareholder of LVMH, which consists of about 75 luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Christian Dior — and Arnault’s two sons, Antoine and Alexandre.
All five of Arnault’s children hold key positions at LVMH, with each of them closely watched for signs that they could step ahead of others to one day succeed the 74-year-old CEO, who has not indicated that he intends to retire soon.
The group had lunch at five-star Cheval Blanc Hotel, part of the LVMH portfolio, before 46-year-old Antoine appeared on stage with Musk at the VivaTech conference.
He was joined at the conference by his mother and by Riley, 37. The British actress was married to Musk from 2010-12 and then from 2013-16.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted a photo of himself meeting Musk on Friday
Antoine Arnault, far left, is seen with Musk (right) and Orange CEO Christel Heydemann on Friday
Antoine Arnault posted this photo of his father Bernard (left), the second richest man in the world, with Musk, the richest in the world
From left: Alexandre Arnault, Maye Musk, Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk and Antoine Arnault
Maye Musk (right) and Talulah Riley (in white) listen to Musk’s discussion
Riley was married to Musk twice: she and her former mother-in-law share a joke on Friday
Riley awaits the start of the VivaTech conference on Friday
Musk used the forum to warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence, to push for a “pause” from development and to insist that the AI sector needed regulation.
“There is a real danger that digital superintelligence will have negative consequences,” Musk said
“I’m for AI regulation,” he added.
He also talked about progress with Tesla and said his company is close to making fully autonomous vehicles a reality.
Musk said autonomy was the “key driver” of the brand’s market value.
Shares of the company rose as much as 3 percent on the announcement, to their highest level in more than eight months.
Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker, has a market cap of about $800 billion, but has been missing Musk’s goals of becoming fully self-driving for years.
“While I’ve said this before, I think we’ll sort out autonomy soon,” he said.
‘The value of the company is mainly based on autonomy.
“That’s really, I think, the main driver of our value.”
The electric car maker says what it calls “Full Self-Driving” software doesn’t make its vehicle autonomous and requires driver supervision.