Musk Has a New Message for Ukrainians Fighting Russian Invasion

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has become one of Ukraine's 

biggest supporters since the unprovoked Russian invasion.

• LUC OLINGA
• 1 DAY AGO

Since the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, Elon Musk has established himself as an important supporter of Ukraine. 

He has publicly expressed this support, a rare thing for a CEO of multinationals like Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Tesla Inc Report and SpaceX. In doing so, he enabled other CEOs to do the same. 

Besides words, the billionaire has also taken various actions to help Ukraine and Ukrainians even though he is aware that he does not hold the key to ending this war. Musk sent multiple shipments of Starlink terminals -- the satellite internet service offered by his space company SpaceX -- to Ukraine.

These terminals allow remote areas, towns, and villages destroyed by Russian bombing and Ukrainians in general to stay connected to the world. They essentially allow the country whose communications infrastructure was destroyed by the Russian army to continue to have access to a fast, secure and independent internet. 

This is very important because in an armed conflict each side tries to make its own propaganda to gain the sympathy of the world. Everything must therefore be done to prevent one side from winning the communication war. By sending Starlink terminals to Ukraine, Musk allows ordinary Ukrainians to continue to tell the inside story of their daily lives and avoid Moscow dictating and shaping the narrative

VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images

Russia Uses Massive Cyberattacks in Ukraine

The billionaire also quietly sent some Tesla Powerwalls, an integrated battery system that stores solar energy, to Ukraine to help the war-torn country.

But in addition to the war on the ground, Russia has engaged in another confrontation and this one concerns cyberattacks, in particular against communication infrastructures.

U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that Russian military spy hackers were behind a cyberattack on a satellite broadband service that disrupted Ukraine’s military communications at the start of the war last month, according to The Washington Post.

Last month, before the invasion, Russian government hackers had probably broadly penetrated Ukrainian military, energy and other critical computer networks to collect intelligence and position themselves to potentially disrupt the systems.

The recent outages, which began Feb. 24 — the day Russia invaded Ukraine — resulted from the hack of satellite modems belonging to tens of thousands of people in Ukraine and other countries in Europe, an official with the U.S. firm Viasat, headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif, told The Post. Agencies affected included civilians as well as Ukraine’s military and other government agencies, Ukrainian officials told the newspaper.

The Viasat official told the Post that distributors would be shipped new modems to be provided to those affected by the cyberattack.

These cyberattacks raise questions about the vulnerability of other broadband services with poorly-maintained firmware on their customer network infrastructure. 

Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty

Starlink Terminals Not Hacked by Russians Yet

But despite their power, these Russian cyberattacks have yet to affect Starlink internet stations which help Ukrainians stay in touch with the world, Musk just said.

"Starlink, at least so far, has resisted all hacking & jamming attempts," Musk stated on Twitter on March 25.

This statement by Musk is something of a relief for Ukraine and Ukrainians as it suggests that Russia does not control all communications to and from Ukraine. This is an important point because this conflict which has already caused hundreds of deaths and the displacement of millions of others is here to stay. No doubt the communication war will also intensify.

Starlink technology is being used by civilians in areas under attack that have lost Internet service, and by government officials.

"A new batch of Starlink stations!" Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov posted on Twitter on March 18, with a photo showing the hardware. "While Russia is blocking access to the Internet, Ukraine is becoming more open to the entire world. Ukraine is the truth. The truth always wins. Thank you, @elonmusk, the Government of Poland, and Orlen."

American President Joe Biden said this week that the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting sanctions on aggressor Russia, may lead to a rash of cybersecurity breaches unleashed by the Kremlin and other quasi-official sources in Russia.

Biden said that his administration has "evolving intelligence" that cyber warfare will be part of Russia's striking back against American sanctions.

"It’s part of Russia’s playbook. Today, my Administration is reiterating those warnings based on evolving intelligence that the Russian Government is exploring options for potential cyberattack," Biden said.

Elon Musk says the US has 'very, very ancient leadership,' believes there's 'a serious issue with gerontocracy' in many countries

John L. Dorman

Sat, March 26, 2022, 

Elon Musk says he is a free speech absolutist.Jae C. Hong/AP

• Elon Musk told Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner that the US has "very, very ancient leadership."

• "For a democracy to function, the leaders must be reasonably in touch with the bulk of the population," he said.

• Musk said he'd like to see political leaders be within 10-20 years of the average population age.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a recent interview said that the United States has a "very, very ancient leadership" and questioned how leading figures can "stay in touch with the people" if they are several generations removed from most of the population.

The comments from the electric vehicle and clean energy company leader came this week during a conversation with Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California.

Musk spoke about everything from Russian President Vladimir Putin to revelations that he sometimes feels "lonely," but he had pointed criticism for leaders whom he feels are disconnected from their citizenry.

When Musk was asked about humans having "a significantly increased lifespan," he offered a straightforward view about human life.

"I don't think we should try to have people live for a really long time," he told Döpfner. "That it would cause asphyxiation of society because the truth is, most people don't change their mind. They just die."

He continued: "So if they don't die, we will be stuck with old ideas and society wouldn't advance."

Musk then said that a "gerontocracy" — where a government is essentially controlled by citizens significantly older than the bulk of the population — is not healthy.

"I think we already have quite a serious issue with gerontocracy, where the leaders of so many countries are extremely old," he revealed. "In the US, it's a very, very ancient leadership. And it is just impossible to stay in touch with the people if you are many generations older than them."

He added: "The founders of the USA put minimum ages for a local office. But they did not put maximum ages because they did not expect that people will be living so long. They should have. Because for a democracy to function, the leaders must be reasonably in touch with the bulk of the population. And if you're too young or too old, you can't say that you will be attached."

Musk said that he'd like to see political leaders "be ideally within 10 or at least, 20 years of the average age of the population."

He said that while he would like to sustain good health over an extended period of time, he doesn't fear death.

"I am not afraid of dying. I think it would come as a relief," he said in the interview.

Over the course of President Joe Biden's tenure, Musk — who seemed pumped about the administration's push to combat climate change early last year — began to criticize Biden, who is 79, over his failure to include Tesla in the national conversation about electric vehicles.

In January, the billionaire on Twitter blasted Biden as "a damp sock puppet in human form."

Last month, the president during a speech called Tesla the country's "largest electric-vehicle manufacturer" after facing repeated criticism for not acknowledging the company as a leader in the automotive industry.

Elon Musk says people might download their personalities onto a humanoid robot Tesla is making, which he says could be in 'moderate volume production' next year

Sarah Jackson

Sat, March 26, 2022,

Elon MuskREUTERS/Mike Blake

• Elon Musk recently sat down with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Insider's parent company, Axel Springer.

• Musk shared on his thoughts on potential uses for Optimus, a humanoid robot Tesla is developing.

• He said it could help preserve memories and personalities if people "download" those things onto Optimus.

Elon Musk has high hopes for a future with humanoid robots.

"Humanoid robots are happening," he said. "The rate of advancement of AI is very rapid."

Musk shared his thoughts during a recent conversation with Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California.

He spoke about potential future uses for Optimus, a humanoid robot Tesla is making.

"Optimus is a general purpose, sort of worker-droid," the Tesla CEO said. "The initial role must be in work that is repetitive, boring, or dangerous. Basically, work that people don't want to do."

When asked if Optimus could feature in people's daily lives, such as by lending a hand around the house, Musk concurred, saying it'd be a "general focused humanoid."

He said he thinks it's possible that people may one day be able to download their brain capacities into an Optimus.

"We could download the things that we believe make ourselves so unique," he said. "Now, of course, if you're not in that body anymore, that is definitely going to be a difference, but as far as preserving our memories, our personality, I think we could do that."

Musk also spoke to the robot's bipedal design.

"Humanity has designed the world to interact with a bipedal humanoid with two arms and ten fingers," he said. "So if you want to have a robot fit in and be able to do things that humans can do, it must be approximately the same size and shape and capability."

Musk said he thinks Tesla will have "something pretty good at the prototype level" this year and might have "at least a moderate volume production" around the end of 2023.

He first unveiled the 5-foot-8, 125-pound "Tesla Bot" during a company AI event in August 2021. In January, he called it "the most important product development we're doing this year."

Besides Optimus, Musk spoke about a range of other topics in the interview. He shared his thoughts on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying, "We cannot let Putin take over Ukraine." He added that he thinks Putin is "significantly richer" than him even though Musk is the world's richest person on record.