Musk’s tip to tech CEOs: Best AI models safety test is to put them on Delta flight

Earlier this week, Elon Musk warned that Delta will ‘lose a lot of customers’

Elon Musk has humorously suggested that the best way to test the safety of AI models is by placing them on a Delta flight, implying that the airline's in-flight WiFi is so unreliable it effectively cuts off internet access.

Sharing a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk wrote:“Best way to sandbox an AI is to put it on a Delta flight – it will have no chance of accessing the Internet!”. The comments come as Delta Airlines opted against Starlink in favour of Amazon Leo for in-flight internet service. According to latest reports, Delta CEO Ed Bastian cited Elon Musk as the reason to skip Starlink. An X user JonNYC allegedly cited the Delta CEO saying “We do not want to be with Elon Musk”.

Elon Musk warns Delta will ‘lose a lot of customers’

In a post on September 28, X user John LeFevre said that Delta's rival United Airlines Holdings Inc. had 600+ aircraft with Starlink. The figure represented approximately 36% of the airline's entire fleet. "Delta has zero, and no plans for it. People will book accordingly. RIP Delta," he wrote in the post.SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to the post writing: “Delta will lose a lot of customers”.

Delta Airlines on why it rejected Elon Musk’s Starlink

Delta Airlines is reportedly targeting 2028 to start offering Leo in-flight Wi-Fi on about half of its fleet. As quoted in a post by X user Sawyer Meritt earlier this year, Delta Airlines explained why it chose Amazon’s Leo saying:“This agreement gives us the fastest and most cost-effective technology available to better connect the world today, and it deepens our work with a global leader that shares our ambition to build what’s next.”

In a statement to PC Mag then, the airline said “The assertion in question is not accurate”, claiming that incorporating Delta Sync with Starlink would have been permitted under SpaceX's in-flight Wi-Fi agreement. It further stated that it want to deepen work with “a global leader that shares our ambition to build what’s next.”