49. Grimes

In the midst of Elon Musk’s tur­bu­lent phase dur­ing 2018, Claire Bouch­er, known as Grimes, emerged as a sig­nif­i­cant fig­ure in his life, spark­ing a com­plex rela­tion­ship char­ac­ter­ized by cre­ativ­i­ty, intel­lec­tu­al engage­ment, and shared con­tem­pla­tion on futur­is­tic themes. Grimes, a musi­cian with a pen­chant for sci­ence fic­tion and exper­i­men­tal art, found com­mon ground with Musk through their mutu­al inter­est in top­ics like arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and its poten­tial threats, exem­pli­fied by their dis­cus­sion of Roko’s Basilisk—a spec­u­la­tive sce­nario where AI could pun­ish those who did­n’t con­tribute to its cre­ation.

Their rela­tion­ship, orig­i­nat­ing from a quirky inter­net inter­ac­tion about this thought exper­i­ment, quick­ly deep­ened as they dis­cov­ered mutu­al inter­ests rang­ing from music to pro­found his­tor­i­cal events. Musk, in the throes of per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al upheaval, found solace and dis­trac­tion in Grimes’ com­pa­ny. Her pres­ence pro­vid­ed a unique blend of com­pan­ion­ship and intel­lec­tu­al stim­u­la­tion, as they would spend their time togeth­er div­ing into var­i­ous sub­jects or vis­it­ing Musk’s Tes­la fac­to­ry, pro­vid­ing each oth­er with sup­port amid their demand­ing and chaot­ic lives.

Their dynam­ic was not with­out its chal­lenges, how­ev­er. The inclu­sion of con­tro­ver­sial fig­ures, such as the rap­per Azealia Banks, into their sphere led to pub­lic dis­putes and media scan­dals, high­light­ing the tumul­tuous aspects of their rela­tion­ship. Despite these inci­dents, Grimes’ influ­ence on Musk was pal­pa­ble, offer­ing him a mix of intel­lec­tu­al com­pan­ion­ship and cre­ative inspi­ra­tion, even as they nav­i­gat­ed the com­plex­i­ties of pub­lic atten­tion and pro­fes­sion­al pres­sures.

This chap­ter por­trays Grimes not only as a part­ner to Musk dur­ing a tur­bu­lent peri­od but also as a fig­ure who matched and com­ple­ment­ed his com­plex­i­ties. Whether through explor­ing tech­no­log­i­cal dan­gers, engag­ing in artis­tic projects, or fac­ing pub­lic con­tro­ver­sies, their rela­tion­ship under­scored the inter­twin­ing of per­son­al dynam­ics with broad­er cul­tur­al and tech­no­log­i­cal dia­logues. Through­out this peri­od, Grimes and Musk’s inter­ac­tions revealed the mul­ti­fac­eted nature of their per­son­al­i­ties, their shared curiosi­ties, and the ways in which they influ­enced each oth­er amidst the back­drop of Musk’s tech ven­tures and pub­lic life.