Elon Musk tells the jury that all he wants to do is save humanity
Elon Musk tells the jury that all he wants to do is save humanity
埃隆·马斯克告诉陪审团：他所做的一切都是为了拯救人类
On the stand, Elon Musk is positioning himself as a savior. 在证人席上，埃隆·马斯克将自己定位为一名救世主。
In the high-profile trial between him and his fellow OpenAI co-founder, now CEO, Sam Altman, Musk opened by going through his background. He went as far back as being raised in South Africa and arriving in Canada for college with “2,500 in Canadian travelers’ checks and a bag of clothes and books,” then spent an unusually long time talking about his past, from Zip2 to PayPal to the current, more familiar slate of companies he now runs. 在马斯克与 OpenAI 联合创始人兼现任首席执行官萨姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）之间这场备受瞩目的审判中，马斯克首先回顾了自己的背景。他追溯到自己在南非的成长经历，以及带着“2500加元的旅行支票和一袋衣物书籍”前往加拿大上大学的往事。随后，他花了异常长的时间讲述自己的过去，从 Zip2 到 PayPal，再到如今他所经营的那些更为人熟知的公司。
Why is Musk giving the jury so much of his origin story? Though he may be, depending on the day, the world’s wealthiest individual, Musk suggested that all of his business ventures were concerned with the well-being of humanity. Rocket company SpaceX was founded as “Life insurance for life as we know it”; electric-car manufacturer Tesla was started because he thought continued reliance on fossil fuels “could be pretty bad for the environment and humanity as a whole.” (On the stand, he dubiously claimed that he founded Tesla.) 为什么马斯克要向陪审团讲述这么多关于他个人起源的故事？尽管他有时是世界上最富有的人，但马斯克暗示他所有的商业冒险都是为了人类的福祉。火箭公司 SpaceX 的创立是为了作为“我们所知生命的保险”；电动汽车制造商特斯拉的创立，是因为他认为持续依赖化石燃料“对环境和整个人类来说可能非常糟糕”。（在证人席上，他甚至令人怀疑地声称自己创立了特斯拉。）
He said that he has been worried about AI in his college years, that it could be a “double-edged sword,” one that could “solve all the diseases and make everyone prosperous, or it could kill us all.” He suggested that AI had two outcomes: the utopian Star Trek one, or the dystopian Terminator one. He wants the future to be more like Gene Roddenberry’s and not like James Cameron’s. This was his intention in co-founding OpenAI. 他说，他在大学时代就开始担心人工智能，认为它可能是一把“双刃剑”，既能“治愈所有疾病并让每个人富裕起来，也可能杀死我们所有人”。他指出人工智能有两种结局：一种是《星际迷航》式的乌托邦，另一种是《终结者》式的反乌托邦。他希望未来更像吉恩·罗登贝瑞（《星际迷航》创作者）所构想的那样，而不是詹姆斯·卡梅隆（《终结者》导演）笔下的世界。这就是他联合创立 OpenAI 的初衷。
Musk cast himself as a hero — the good guy who cares about humanity, suggesting that Altman is the opposite. 马斯克将自己塑造成一位英雄——一个关心人类的好人，并暗示奥特曼恰恰相反。
It could prove to be an effective strategy, especially when contrasted with Altman, whose background co-founding the long-forgotten social media app Loopt and his days as a partner at Y Combinator, might sound far less magnanimous. 这可能被证明是一种有效的策略，尤其是与奥特曼相比时。奥特曼的背景——联合创立了早已被遗忘的社交媒体应用 Loopt，以及在 Y Combinator 担任合伙人的经历——听起来远没有那么高尚。
Musk went as far as claiming that Altman was a thief. “It’s very simple: it’s not okay to steal a charity. That’s my view and moreover if the defendants are found not guilty, this case will become caselaw. It will become precedent and give precedent to looting every charity in America,” Musk said. “If the verdict comes out that makes it okay to loot a charity, the entire foundation of charitable giving in America will be destroyed.” 马斯克甚至声称奥特曼是个小偷。“这很简单：窃取慈善机构是不对的。这是我的观点。而且，如果被告被判无罪，这个案件将成为判例。它将成为先例，并为洗劫美国每一个慈善机构提供先例，”马斯克说。“如果判决结果显示洗劫慈善机构是可以接受的，那么美国慈善捐赠的整个基础都将被摧毁。”
On the topic of charitable giving, Musk did not tell the jury that most of his foundation’s philanthropic donations have gone to interests closely or directly tied to his own. 在谈到慈善捐赠时，马斯克并没有告诉陪审团，他基金会的大部分慈善捐款实际上都流向了与他本人密切相关或直接相关的利益方。