Elon and Rishi’s unseemly love-in

Two of the world’s great unelected power-brokers met last night at Bletchley Park. Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak held a joint interview after the international conference about AI. Their topic was regulation.

‘What should a government like ours be doing?’ said the PM.

What an odd start. Why is the Prime Minister asking a foreign billionaire to pre-empt parliament by shaping our internal regulations for us? But Elon seems to get a free pass. He’s regarded as a disinterested operator who supports the powerless against the mighty. And his air of eccentric innocence is fortified by his appearance. He hadn’t bothered to shave. His jowls are rimmed with bum-fluff and he grins constantly like an excited schoolboy. No stylist gets anywhere near him. He wears a costume of dark shapeless cast-offs and he resembles an unemployed session-musician who lives under a bridge.

He told Rishi that regulation would not ‘crush innovation’ and he likened AI to a sports field.