Netanyahu talks antisemitism, AI and judicial overhaul with Elon Musk

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an hour long conversation with Elon Musk on Monday, discussing the emergence of artificial intelligence, the challenges of antisemitism, and his government’s judicial overhaul. 

Netanyahu toured the Tesla Motors plant in Fremont, California, together with the Tesla CEO, telling Musk he is aware of his “opposition to antisemitism.”

“You’ve spoken about it, tweeted about it. All I can say is, I hope you will find — within the confines of the First Amendment — the ability to stop not only antisemitism or roll it back as best you can, but the collective hatred of people that antisemitsm represents. And I know you’re committed to that. I hope to help you succeed. It’s not an easy task, but I agree with you to find a balance. It’s a tough one,” Netanyahu said.

Musk has been accused of allowing antisemitism to spread on X (formerly Twitter) since he acquired the platform. The entrepreneur has threatened with suing the ADL, claiming its accusations of a rising in hate speech on on X has caused a staggering 60% drop in advertising revenue.

“I’m against antisemitism, I’m against anti-anything that promotes hate and conflict. And I’m in favour of that which helps both society and take us to a better future for humanity collectively,” Musk told Netanyahu.

Musk also asked Netanyahu about his government’s judicial overhaul, telling the prime minister that the press in the U.S, has “not portrayed the reforms you mentioned in a positive light.”

Netanyahu attacked the New York Times for its “fantastic, obsessive campaign” of the overhaul, before admitting that the original judicial reform package, presented by Justice Minister Yariv Levin on January 4, was “bad” and a “mistake.”

“I came in (to office) and there was a proposal put in which I thought was bad. I thought that was a mistake. It was moving the pendulum from one side to the other side,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister also falsely claimed that the Supreme Court “decide everything” in Israel. “That’s not exactly democracy,” he added.

“We have the most activist judicial court on the planet… Democracy is supposed to be checks and balances of the three branches on each other. In Israel, the judiciary has no checks and no balances. It just has power. So there is a request to try to bring it back into line and that has been sort of boiling all the time,” Netanyahu said.

Musk, on his part, said he had gotten the “most amount of negative pushback from people at Tesla about this interview than anything else I’ve ever done.”

On the topic of AI, Netanyahu said: “It took us maybe a century to adapt to the industrial revolution. We may have just about a few years, and then we’re running out as we speak, to adapt to the AI revolution.”

“The first thing you can do is get like-minded states to agree on a code of ethics and a code of conduct and that’s pretty easy. We can do it among our countries, in our countries and between our countries. We can cooperate to ensure the blessings and curb the curses as much as we can. We do that in civil aviation; we do it in other things, too,” he added.

The prime minister complimented Musk and his work, comparing him with Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.

“I appreciate the opportunity to pick your brain on something that is so important for the future of my country and the future of the world,” he said.