Elon Musk, Bill and Melinda Gates and Mary Meeker: Here’s what you missed at day two of the Code Conference
Mars, artificial intelligence and more.
Asa Mathat
Elon Musk went long on everything from Mars colonization to competing with Apple on electric cars. Sheryl Sandberg explained why Peter Thiel isn’t leaving the Facebook board anytime soon. Bill and Melinda Gates unpacked their theory of philanthropy.
All these conversations, and more, took place on Wednesday at the Code Conference. Here’s a rundown of what you missed:
- Elon Musk argued that Google isn’t really a competitive threat to Tesla. He thinks that the real rival might be Apple, but that it is entering the car game way too late to make a real impact.
- Talking with Kara Swisher and Facebook CTO Mark Schoepfer, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that Peter Thiel’s efforts to sue Gawker Media out of existence won’t get him kicked off the Facebook board, because he is using his own resources.
- TMZ founder and executive producer Harvey Levin talked about the time TMZ broke the story of former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s death ... before Reagan’s own daughter even knew. He also said after it broke news on Prince’s death, the site generated 18 million unique visitors.
- Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker released and presented her 200+ slide presentation on trends in the internet industry, with a focus on the rough seas ahead for Silicon Valley.
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained a bit more about the company’s plans to get back into China, and that Google’s focus on mobile doesn’t mean it plans to start manufacturing phones itself.
- Bill Gates talked about two big problems with artificial intelligence: Figuring out how to make sure humans stay in control of the machines, and understanding how to make sure it doesn’t take everyone’s jobs.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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