Musk is no stranger to purchasing companies, but no, he hasn’t bought Ford.
If you feel like you see too much Musk on your feed these days, better known by the acronym DOGE, alongside fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. To make matters worse, it’s not just fact that’s fueling these news stories, but also AI-generated fiction posing as the real thing.
When rumor spread that Musk had purchased Ford, Reuters was quick to shut it down. A Ford spokesperson told the publication that reports of the purchase were “totally false.” Reuters traced the rumor back to a Nov. 7 Facebook post detailing the fake acquisition as a “revolutionary step in the electric and autonomous vehicle market.” The post also contained an AI-generated image of Musk and Ford CEO Jim Farley cementing the deal with a too-many-fingered handshake.
Although Musk hasn’t bought the company, in May 2023, Ford announced its EV customers would be able to charge their vehicles using Tesla Superchargers in the U.S. and Canada. This made Ford EVs the first non-Tesla vehicles to gain access to Tesla Superchargers, Tesla’s fast EV charging network. Per Ford’s statement, the decision to partner with Tesla was influenced by a study showing consumers were less likely to purchase electric vehicles due to cost and lack of accessible charging stations. Other companies are on track to follow suit and adopt Tesla’s charging plug in the coming year, according to Car and Driver.
This isn’t the first time Musk has been the subject of an experiment in creative writing gone wrong. Fox News have spread thanks to YouTube channels like Wealth Up and Elon Musk Rewind ing AI-assisted fiction and presenting it as though it were fact. These stories rarely come with a disclaimer noting that they’re made up, and they spread like wildfire in circles of the internet where media literacy is just a phrase and not a skill one practices. It’s good to that anyone can lie on the internet. When you hear news that doesn’t seem right, check the source. Heck, check that source’s source. If the information isn’t verifiable, it probably isn’t real.
The truth is often stranger than fiction when it comes to Musk and the company he keeps. This is the man who bought Twitter for an absurd amount of money and named it X after his obsession with the letter. At this point, would it surprise us if he bought Cheerios and named them “Elon’s Sigma Gigachad Space X Loops?” Nope, but please, let’s not give him more ideas.
Published: Dec 8, 2024 12:51 pm