Elon Musk Calls US Media 'Racist' after Dilbert Row

Elon Musk arrives at the In America: An Anthology of Fashion themed Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, US, May 2, 2022. (Reuters)
Elon Musk arrives at the In America: An Anthology of Fashion themed Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, US, May 2, 2022. (Reuters)
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Elon Musk Calls US Media 'Racist' after Dilbert Row

Elon Musk arrives at the In America: An Anthology of Fashion themed Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, US, May 2, 2022. (Reuters)
Elon Musk arrives at the In America: An Anthology of Fashion themed Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, US, May 2, 2022. (Reuters)

Billionaire Elon Musk has called US media "racist" after multiple American newspapers announced they would stop publishing a popular comic strip whose creator called Black people a hate group.

Musk, who owns electric car company Tesla and social network Twitter, tweeted Sunday in response to an article about a rant by Scott Adams, creator of the long-running "Dilbert" -- a satirical take on office life, AFP said.

"For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they're racist against whites & Asians," Musk wrote on the social network, where he has reinstated users banned for hate speech.

"Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist."

Under Musk's leadership, Tesla has been hit with multiple lawsuits alleging racism and researchers say Twitter has seen a rise in hate speech.

Adams, like Musk, has increasingly stoked controversy with his views on social issues.

But a video posted on Wednesday -- in which Adams referred to Black people as a "hate group" -- proved to be the last straw for many "Dilbert" publishers.

"That's a hate group and I don't want anything to do with them," he said.

"Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people."

His rant was prompted by a recent poll by conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports, whose results he said showed a slim majority of Black respondents agreed with the statement "It's okay to be white."

The USA TODAY Network, which operates hundreds of papers across the United States, said Friday it "will no longer publish the Dilbert comic due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator."

Chris Quinn, the editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, said it "was not a difficult decision" for his paper to drop the comic strip.

"We are not a home for those who espouse racism," Quinn added.

MLive Media Group -- which runs eight Michigan-based publications -- said it had "zero tolerance for racism," and would drop Adams's strip because of his "unapologetically racist rant."

The Washington Post said Saturday it would drop the cartoon from its pages "in light of Scott Adams's recent statements," though it was too late to stop the strip from being published in the weekend's print editions.



Pope Leo Warns Politicians of the Challenges Posed by AI

This handout photograph taken and released by the Vatican Media on June 21 2025, shows Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech as he meets with participants in the Jubilee of the Rulers, in The Vatican. (Handout / Vatican Media / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Vatican Media on June 21 2025, shows Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech as he meets with participants in the Jubilee of the Rulers, in The Vatican. (Handout / Vatican Media / AFP)
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Pope Leo Warns Politicians of the Challenges Posed by AI

This handout photograph taken and released by the Vatican Media on June 21 2025, shows Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech as he meets with participants in the Jubilee of the Rulers, in The Vatican. (Handout / Vatican Media / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Vatican Media on June 21 2025, shows Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech as he meets with participants in the Jubilee of the Rulers, in The Vatican. (Handout / Vatican Media / AFP)

Pope Leo warned politicians on Saturday of the challenges posed by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), addressing its potential impact on younger people as a prime concern.

Speaking at an event attended by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and parliamentary delegations from 68 countries, Leo revisited a topic that he has raised on a number of occasions during the first few weeks of his papacy.

"In particular, it must not be forgotten that artificial intelligence functions as a tool for the good of human beings, not to diminish them or even to replace them," Leo said at an event held as part of the Roman Catholic Jubilee or Holy Year.

AI proponents say it will speed up scientific and technological progress and help people to carry out routine tasks, granting them more time to pursue higher-value and creative work.

The US-born pontiff said attention was needed to protect "healthy, fair and sound lifestyles, especially for the good of younger generations."

He noted that AI's "static memory" was in no way comparable to the "creative, dynamic" power of human memory.

"Our personal life has greater value than any algorithm, and social relationships require spaces for development that far transcend the limited patterns that any soulless machine can pre-package," he said.

Leo, who became pope in May, has spoken previously of the threat posed by AI to jobs and has called on journalists to use it responsibly.