Didn't need all that research. Musk was friends with Larry Page, as Google was leading AI research they were bound to have conversations about the smartest researchers in the team.
Also, you underestimate Elon Musk if you think he's not capable of researching specialists in the fields he is interested in, I believe many people are hellbent on attributing all his successes to dumb luck rather than any sort of competence.
You're right. Being friends with CEOs has a lot of perks. I gotta hand it to Musk, his personality is such that people are eager to give him intelligence on things.
Yep. It's amazing to see how quickly people start denying reality when they don't like someone's beliefs/behavior.
I could acknowledge that a hypothetical smart, woke, furry, trans, porn-addicted programmer that regularly makes great FOSS contributions is intelligent and capable while still disliking their beliefs/behavior.
If we truly live in the "most entertainig outcome" timeline, this is definitely what's going to happen.