From academics to AI gurus, it seems like everyone has a view on the Zuckerberg-Musk trashtalkathon over AI regulation. For us, recent discussions with finance pros with AI chops have fueled our Muskian perspective. Here’s our theory on Zuckerberg’s position: he believes that even if it’s hard to do, you can actually put the AI toothpaste back into the tube if something goes wrong. Perhaps he saw that after Bloomberg initially reported that Facebook missed Q2 earnings, it corrected itself a few moments later. Or maybe he’s optimistic that despite Facebook’s so-far unsuccessful efforts to smite fake news, it will fix the issue before Kenya’s upcoming election is compromised. But most pros who dealt with the financial crisis will tell you that in a largely unregulated environment, where people don’t understand complex innovation, unintended things happen. And oftentimes, they aren’t easy to undo.

This article was published as part of Weekly Briefing No. 91