Share Publisher’s Note: This column is the latest in a series by Don Lenihan exploring the issues around the use of AI, including the social, economic and governance implications. To see earlier instalments in the series, click here .Elon Musk apparently thinks that running Tesla, Space X, xAI, X (Twitter), and Neuralink isn’t keeping him busy enough. When Donald Trump mused about putting Musk in his cabinet last week, the billionaire immediately turned to X to let us know that he "can't wait,” and that there’s “a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go." If elected, Trump says he’d strike a commission of business leaders to review government programs, reduce regulations, and cut spending. “Secretary Musk” responded with a photo of himself standing behind a podium titled “Department of Government Efficiency.” He’s also hired Chris Young, a prominent Republican operative and organizer, to help him plan and manage his political activities. Clearly, Musk is angling for a role in politics, but why? While there is no evidence he is losing interest in business, the mogul does have strong views about government, especially when it comes to regulating businesses. Musk is a passionate, visionary leader who for a decade has relied on his own instincts to slowly align his diverse portfolio of companies around a single, overarching theme: artificial intelligence (AI). Take Tesla: Musk’s obsession with self-driving cars has pushed this company to the forefront of AI research on image recognition, machine learning and neural networks. Now Tesla is leveraging this expertise to build Optimus, a state-of-the-art humanoid robot. Neuralink is using AI to explore and create an interface between brain activity and body movements, and perhaps one day will connect artificial with human intelligence. Space X is integrating AI into its navigation system – perhaps eventually to guide its vessels to Mars. But Musk’s futuristic AI vision finds its clearest and most ambitious expression in xAI. This fledgling start-up has already produced two versions of Grok, its signature chatbot – and it’s barely a year old. Now it’s at a crucial juncture: Musk wants to make Grok the crown jewel in his portfolio. Last week xAI unveiled a massive new data centre