Elon Musk responds to MIT researcher who wants to run Twitter without salary; 'You must..'

After being voted out in a poll on Twitter asking his fans whether he should retain the position of a CEO at the social media giant, Elon Musk on Tuesday complained that running the venture was a drain on his life savings and a lot of ‘pain.'

The SpaceX CEO looked for volunteers to take his place, notably, admitting that investment has been "in the fast lane to bankruptcy" since before his takeover in May.

“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor," Musk tweeted. He furthermore said, "Twitter has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May" and that there is "no one willing and capable" who wants to run Twitter Inc.

'Let me run Twitter..'

In response to Musk's tweet, Lex Fridman, a prominent AI academic and research scientist at MIT said that he was willing to take up the job but under some terms and conditions. “Fun suggestion @elonmusk : Let me run Twitter for a bit. No salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world. Just offering my help in the unlikely case it's useful," he wrote.

Musk responded to Fridman, “You must like pain a lot." Then he continued to say that there was, in fact, a catch to the offer. "You have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?" said Tesla boss. "Yes," said the podcaster with keen interests in ‘robots and humans’ "We'll turn it around."

According to Fridman's official website, he's an AI researcher for autonomous vehicles, human-robot interaction, and machine learning at “MIT and beyond". He has also hosted SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on his podcast multiple times, the latest being Dec 2021. Twitter's CEO purchased the platform on Oct. 27 sealing the $44 billion deal. Since his takeover, a number of brands and advertisers have exited in a mass exodus, including Musk's more than half the global staff. Twitter is on pace to lose $4 billion a year Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, estimated in a post. Musk dissolved Twitter's board and its C-Suite, and became the sole operator and decision maker for the social media firm. He is now looking for a new CEO as he wants to step down from the top leadership position.