Tesla’s former AI Director gets some Tesla Tequila shots after Musk’s ‘Software 2.0’ joke

By Simon Alvarez

Posted on September 30, 2022

There seems to be no love lost between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former AI Director Andrej Karpathy. During the recently-held AI Day 2022 presentation, Musk ended up trolling Karapthy with a “Software 2.0” joke, prompting the former Tesla executive to accept a Tesla Tequila-related dare. 

Karpathy, who left Tesla earlier this year, seemed excited about AI Day 2022. Prior to the event, the former Tesla executive tweeted a popcorn emoji, suggesting that he was about to sit back and enjoy one of the most technical presentations on artificial intelligence from his previous employer. 

The former Tesla AI Director seemed to be in high spirits, even noting that his friends were “forcing me to take 5 shots if anyone says ‘Software 2.0.’” What Karpathy probably did not expect much was that Elon Musk was online on Twitter for most of AI Day 2022, so the CEO definitely saw his previous AI Director’s post. 

Musk then took it upon himself to specifically mention “Software 2.0” during AI Day 2022’s Q&A portion — twice. “As the world transitions to Software 2.0 — someone I know now has to drink five tequilas — so, let’s see… Software 2.0 will use a lot of neural net training,” Musk said, smirking and clearly directing his comments at Karpathy. 

Karpathy promptly reacted to Musk’s statement, tweeting “omg” following Musk’s comments. Ever a man of his word, however, Karpathy later posted a photo of himself downing a shot of Tesla Tequila. With his post came the caption, “my last tweet of the night i think.” Karpathy’s post has inspired some good laughs from the Tesla community, including Musk himself. 

While Musk and Karpathy’s interactions during AI Day 2022 can be seen as two colleagues just having fun, the two have actually done a ton of serious work for Tesla’s AI program. Prior to his departure, Karpathy served as Tesla’s AI Director, and over the years, he has given some of the company’s most technical discussions on neural networks. It was then quite refreshing to see Karapthy and Musk still on good terms, even on such an important event.

Watch Tesla’s AI Day 2022 presentation in the video below. 

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Tesla’s former AI Director gets some Tesla Tequila shots after Musk’s ‘Software 2.0’ joke