Talk:Elon Musk

Frequently asked questions

Q1: Can I write a message to Elon Musk here? (No.)

A1: No. The "Talk:Elon Musk" page is not for writing messages to Musk. It is only for discussing changes to the Wikipedia article about him. Writing a message to Musk here is pointless and disruptive, and such messages will be removed as an improper use of the page.

Q2: Can you update the article to call Musk a "business magnet"? (No.)

A2: No. Musk once suggested in an interview that his Wikipedia article be changed to describe him as a "business magnet." The tone of that interview was not very serious; he also claimed to be an alien. Wikipedia doesn't have to do what Musk says, and this request has been made and declined dozens of times already. New requests may be removed without a response so that other discussions are not disrupted.

Q3: Should Musk be identified as South African in the opening sentence?

A3: Musk is a US citizen (since 2002) born and raised in South Africa, and also acquired Canadian citizenship via his mother. Including these nationalities in the opening sentence in a balanced way would be complex, and the consensus is that they should instead be explained later in the lead.

Q4: Can you change "Tesla CEO" to "Tesla Technoking"?

A4: No, because he is still CEO according to company records and that is a common corporate title that readers will understand, while "Technoking" is a vanity term. The goal of the article is to inform people, and not to raise a technicality that would confuse them.

Q5: What is the deal with Musk's father supposedly having partly owned an emerald mine?

A5: Both Elon and Errol have said as much in the past but recently changed their stories, leaving the facts murky. In terms of prior confirmation, journalists with access to them have reported it as part of Elon's background. Specifically, a 2014 report originally printed in the San Jose Mercury News (and cited in the article) stated that Errol Musk had "a stake in" a mine. Elon affirmed his father's mine involvement in an interview with Jim Clash, a career interviewer of public figures, that was published by Forbes and withdrawn without explanation a few months later. Elon biographer Ashlee Vance likewise confirmed Errol's mining interest, with Elon's objections but not denials, in a 2020 interview report with Elon.

While today Elon disputes almost everything about the story, Errol has stated that he received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of emeralds from his dealings.

Q6: Should "Bachelor of Arts in Physics" be "Bachelor of Science" instead?

A6: No. Although it may seem counterintuitive, "Bachelor of Arts in Physics" is the degree that the University of Pennsylvania (among other schools) awards.

Q7: Should the article acknowledge doubts about Musk's academic record?

A7: Wikipedia policy on biographies of living persons requires that negative information about a person must be attributed to reliable published sources, and excludes both self-published sources (e.g. Twitter threads) and court trial records. The article states that sources disagree about when Musk obtained bachelor degrees, and that he did not attend Stanford for any significant amount of time. Any doubts beyond this require appropriate sources.

Q8: Is Musk an engineer?

A8: Musk is chief engineer of SpaceX, a title that applies within the company and that the press regularly mentions. He is not a professional engineer, a distinction within engineering that carries certain legal privileges in the United States, nor has he completed an engineering training program, nor has he ever been hired as an engineer. The article therefore does not include any of these claims. It does note that, from time to time, Musk has made initial product proposals at his companies that his trained engineers then research and develop. He does hold IEEE Honorary Membership.

Q9: Why doesn't the article identify Musk as co-founder of PayPal?

A9: Because that could mislead readers that Musk was involved in the creation of the PayPal service and brand, when he was not. Instead, as the article states, he co-founded a company (X.com Corporation) that acquired the company that had developed PayPal (Confinity Inc.) and then renamed itself as PayPal, Inc.

Q10: Why does this page include criticism of Musk's actions and stances?

A10: Musk is criticized/praised a lot in many reliable sources, and as such we need to talk about these criticisms and praise. To quote from Wikipedia's policy on a neutral point of view, articles must represent "fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without editorial bias, all the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic."

Q11: Why is this a "good article" when some people consider Musk a bad person?

A11: "Good article" on Wikipedia refers to the way the article is written, not what kind of person Musk is. Good articles have been found to satisfy Wikipedia editorial standards for accuracy, verifiability and balanced presentation.

Q12: Why doesn't this page call Musk African American?

A12: African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. Musk does not have ancestry from the Black racial groups of Africa; his ancestry is European.

References

"almost entirely republican"

This sentence: "Beginning in the late 2010s, Musk's political contributions have shifted to almost entirely supporting Republicans."

is very vague. It doesn't specify what 'late 2010s' means or 'almost entirely'; the data referenced in the article (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/06/10/elon-musk-twitter-republican-00038671) cited as well as linked to is:

https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=elon+musk&order=desc&sort=D

if 'late 2010s' means 2016 onward, then the breakdown is:

• distinct donations: 2 non-political (to spacex), 11 democrat donations, 12 republicans

• distinct entities rather than distinct donations: then it is 1 non-political, 8 republican, 8 democrat.

so that sentence seems demonstrably false, even if you are using the loosest possible definition of 'almost entirely', which is I suppose 'greater than 50%', then the non-political one would cause neither democrat nor republican to reach 50%, so democrat + non-political = greater than 50%, as does republican + non-political.

It is 50/50 by any reasonable definition. 5-4 since 2020, as well. still nearly 50/50. literally 50/50 if you choose 2018 onward, etc.

I propose that either the exact numbers are used or the sentence is changed to:

"Musk's political contributions are divided roughly equally between Democrats and Republicans."

2601:18D:8D7F:4690:C823:E10F:6BFC:4003 (talk) 00:49, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

What you are doing is original research, which is not what we do here. We follow what the reliable sources say, which in this case is His political donations over the past several years have trended from majority-blue, to mixed, to almost entirely Republicans. – Muboshgu (talk) 01:01, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

The article in question is a political opinion piece, and if it is the author's political opinion is that roughly %50 constitutes "almost entirely" then it doesn't make sense to state it as fact. Foonix0 (talk) 18:49, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

'co-founder of... OpenAI'?

The article says, 'co-founder of... OpenAI'.

The OpenAI article lists 10 co-founders, of which Musk is not one, although he is listed as one of the two initial board members.

Which is correct? Or is it a case of Schrödinger's Wikipedia? 2A00:23EE:1208:28D3:2E21:FDA:B2D5:2B9F (talk) 16:53, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

SOurce (Wikipedia is not an wp:rs? Slatersteven (talk) 17:38, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Founder... of... Twitter

"Founder, owner, CTO, and chairman of X Corp. and Twitter" is mentioned twice in this article and is misleading. It is worded in a way that states that musk was involved in the founding of Twitter, which he was not. Jvptaylor (talk) 22:06, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

X.AI -> xAI

It was just announced today and appears to be stylized xAI. Sockwell162 (talk) 17:03, 12 July 2023 (UTC)