Elon Musk was pictured with his twin children, Strider and Azure, as well as their mother, Shivon Zilis, for the first time since quietly welcoming them.
The new photo shows the SpaceX CEO and the Neuralink director each holding a twin on their laps when the babies were 16-months old. At the time, they were all relaxing on a poolside patio at Zilis’ home in Austin, Texas.
Author Walter Isaacson, who has been shadowing the SpaceX CEO for about three years, shared the sneak peek into Musk’s life as a father on Wednesday along with an excerpt from his forthcoming biography about the tech billionaire.
According to the excerpt published by Time Magazine, Isaacson wrote that Musk had texted him to come to Zilis’ home in March, explaining, “There are a few important things I would like to talk to you about. Can only be done in person.”
“When I got to Austin, he was at the house of Shivon Zilis, the Neuralink executive who was the mother of two of his children and who had been his intellectual companion on artificial intelligence since the founding of OpenAI eight years earlier,” Isaacson wrote.
The author explained that Musk initially had the group leave their phones inside the house as they chatted outside because “he said, someone could use them to monitor our conversation.”
“But he later agreed that I could use what he said about AI in my book,” Isaacson noted.
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Isaacson recalled during the meeting that Zilis had made coffee for the group and nothing was unusual – until Musk started discussing the daunting dangers of AI and machine learning.
Isaacson added that Musk admitted he has no time to think about running X, formerly Twitter, when humans were on the verge of a potential AI takeover.
“For a moment I was struck by the oddness of the scene,” Isaacson wrote. “We were sitting on a suburban patio by a tranquil backyard swimming pool on a sunny spring day, with two bright-eyed twins learning to toddle, as Musk somberly speculated about the window of opportunity for building a sustainable human colony on Mars before an AI apocalypse destroyed earthly civilization.”
“I can’t just sit around and do nothing,” Musk had told Isaacson, adding, “With AI coming, I’m sort of wondering whether it’s worth spending that much time thinking about Twitter. Sure, I could probably make it the biggest financial institution in the world. But I have only so many brain cycles and hours in the day. I mean, it’s not like I need to be richer or something.”
The Tesla founder and Zilis secretly welcomed their twins in November 2021, though the news didn’t surface until July the following year. Their names weren’t revealed until Isaacson released the new photo and excerpt.
Musk welcomed eight other children from two previous relationships.
He and ex-wife Justine Wilson welcomed Nevada in 2000, but the infant died at just 10 weeks old of sudden infant death syndrome.
Musk and Wilson then turned to IVF and welcomed twins Griffin and Vivian Musk in April 2004.
The exes continued to grow their family using IVF and in January 2006 they welcomed triplet sons Kai, Saxon and Damian. Two years later, Wilson and Musk divorced.
Ater two marriages to “Westworld” star Talulah Riley and a short relationship with actress Amber Heard, Musk began dating singer Grimes in May 2018.
The “Genesis” artist and Musk welcomed their first son, X AE A-Xii (nicknamed X), in May 2020. However, in September 2021, Pvnew exclusively reported that the couple broke up after three years together.
The pair briefly rekindled their relationship and welcomed daughter Exa Dark Sideræl Musk via surrogate in December 2021. Exa has been nicknamed Y by her parents.
In March 2022, Grimes shared that she and Musk called things off again after Y was born.
