Maybe stick to your day job, Elon

Elon Musk is 47 and terrified by artificial intelligence. The Silicon Valley billionaire thinks we’re living in a version of The Matrix. He wants to colonise Mars. Musk made his money from online payment company PayPal. Since then he has made big bets on electric cars and space travel. He appears to be living proof that, if speaking truth to power is difficult, speaking truth to money is much, much harder.

Last week Musk turned up in Thailand with a miniature submarine which he thought could help rescue a dozen boys from a flooded underground cave complex. The international dive team deemed it impractical. Musk might have felt sore that his commendable effort to help was rejected.

When a British diver who found the boys criticised Musk for a ‘‘PR stunt’’, the billionaire made an allegation of paedophilia against him in a tweet that he later deleted. One suspects that Musk, like President Donald Trump, whom he once advised, likes social media because it allows him to attack critics and maybe to divert attention from perhaps more substantive issues facing his businesses. He is a talented engineer who has made billions from technology.

But he could gain a lot from a little humility. Wisdom does not automatically flow from business success. Rather, it is gained through experience. It is our hope that this episode has taught Musk that much.