Grimes and Elon Musk
When Grimes walks the red carpet at the Met Gala tonight, she’ll have some pretty wealthy arm candy.
According to Page Six, Grimes and Space X founder Elon Musk have been quietly dating for the last month, and they intend to go public with their relationship at the Met Gala.
The pair apparently met online after striking up a connection over a very nerdy joke. Per Page Six:
“Thought experiment Roko’s Basilisk considers the hypothesis of a future where AI lords over the world and could punish those who did not help it into existence. His joke was to merge this thought experiment with a pun using ‘Rococo’, referring to the ornate French 18th Century Baroque style, perhaps pointing out that both concepts are complex, too extreme and ridiculous.”
As it turns out, Grimes had already made the joke in her video for “Flesh Without Blood” which featured a character named Rococo Basilisk. “[This character] is doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she’s also kind of like Marie Antoinette,” she explained to Fuse in 2015.
After coming across the video, Musk got in touch with Grimes through a mutual contact. They began dating soon thereafter.
Best music video art I’ve seen in a while https://t.co/F2E4zDZMyM — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2018
In anticipation of tonight’s Met Gala, Musk seemingly acknowledged Page Six’s report by tweeting “Rococo basilisk” along with a link Rococo’s Wikipedia page.
Rococo basilisk — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2018
Update: Here’s our first photo of the happy couple together!
Elon Musk has got together with musician Grimes, Rihanna rules and you don’t need a dress to make a statement
Elon Musk is dating Grimes – plus four other things we learned at Met Gala 2018
Elon Musk is dating Grimes
Tech billionaire Elon Musk – who recently announced he wanted to start a candy company – and Canadian electropop artist Grimes – whose 2012 song Oblivion was ranked the best song of the decade – are a couple.
The unlikely pair publicly announced their relationship on the red carpet on Monday night. Musk wore a white suit and Grimes (real name Claire Boucher) wore a necklace that looked a lot like the Tesla logo.
According to the New York Posts’s Page Six, the pair have been together for a month, and first met when Musk messaged Boucher online to reference an AI joke she made three years ago.
Two weeks ago, Musk tweeted that he was “just listening” to Boucher’s Spotify playlist Go Flex & Psycho, in a flirtatious exchange that also included rapper Post Malone.
“Glad ur finally listening to cyberpunk speedwae hahaha 🐇,” Boucher replied.
“Sounds great riding my cyborg 🐉,” Musk said.
Men still don’t have to do much
With the honourable exception of Chadwick Boseman (more below), men at this year’s event did not put in nearly as much effort into the theme (“Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”) as the women.
V.C (@VitorCatunda) Menswear at #MetGala red carpet
Expectations vs. Reality pic.twitter.com/Hfum3dBinr
Caspar Salmon (@CasparSalmon) GOD, MEN, MAKE AN EFFORT! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY USELESS, JUST TRY SOMETHING, ANYTHING, FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIVES, DARE TO DREAM! pic.twitter.com/Bm1tPwhvvU
For the past three years, musician and actor Nick Jonas seems to have gotten away with adding a mildly relevant pin to a suit.
Alyssa (@AlyssaJonas01) His style just gets better and better every year @nickjonas #METGala pic.twitter.com/s2dWHv7vBg
Boseman, the star of Marvel’s Black Panther, was one of the few to really jump aboard the theme, earning praise from (among others) Selma and A Wrinkle in Time director Ava DuVernay.
Ava DuVernay (@ava) Thy Kingdom Come! #MetGala pic.twitter.com/Fg8qW7vBRh
Rihanna is the queen of the Met and will never be toppled
“There are very few things the Internet collectively agrees on,” wrote Time Magazine in 2017, “but Robyn Rihanna Fenty is the undisputed queen of the Met Gala”.
It is of course not a competition, but Rihanna – dressed this year as a pearl-encrusted Pope, equal parts extravagant and intricate – delivered one of the night’s best outfits for the third consecutive year she’s attended (she skipped 2016).
Renee Rodrigues (@badgalgvb) A closer look at Rihanna's dress at the #MetGala #MetGala2018 pic.twitter.com/zUKp0LQhWp
Apologies to rapper Cardi B, whose outfit earned almost as much on-the-night praise.
You don’t need a dress to make a statement
Writer and actor Lena Waithe struck a blow for those maybe a little uneasy with the explicitly Catholic theme of this year’s event, turning up with a rainbow flag sewn into her blazer.
Ξvan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz) Lena Waithe repping the LGBTQ community at the #MetGala with a rainbow flag cape sewn into her blazer. pic.twitter.com/YUCG7Y89Gj
Call Me By My @ (@NotAgainBen) #metgala: the theme is religion
Lena Waithe: ok hold my rainbow flag pic.twitter.com/6nkPKlsUsK
“This is like my skin, I’m proud to be in it,” the Golden Globe-winner told the New York Times. “I’ve got the community on my back to make sure they know I’ve got them all the time ... The theme to me is ‘Be yourself’. You were made in God’s image, right?”
Heather & Jessica (@fuggirls) I love that @LenaWaithe used fashion to speak her truth on a night whose theme belongs to a religion that excludes LGBTQ people. I'm sure it will be controversial, but I think it was brilliant. -H #MetGala https://t.co/NCH0yhIzt2
2 Chainz become 1
Play Video 0:39 Rapper 2 Chainz proposes to his girlfriend on the steps of the Met Gala – video
Finally, Rapper 2 Chainz warmed hearts early on when he used the red carpet opportunity to propose to his girlfriend Kesha Ward on the steps of the Met.
The two are actually already engaged – 2 Chainz first proposed to Ward at the BET Awards in 2013 – but the pair have never married. The couple have three children together.
The rapper told a reporter from Complex that he had decided to do it “about a minute ago”.
Elon Musk has been keeping everyone guessing about his love life, but sources exclusively revealed to Page Six that he has been quietly dating hip musician Grimes — who will walk the red carpet with him at Monday’s Met Gala.
A source tells us the pair met around a month ago online, of course, through a joke Musk had planned to tweet but discovered Grimes had already made, dealing with the complications of artificial intelligence.
Thought experiment Roko’s Basilisk considers the hypothesis of a future where AI lords over the world and could punish those who did not help it into existence. His joke was to merge this thought experiment with a pun using “Rococo,” referring to the ornate French 18th century baroque style, perhaps pointing out that both concepts are complex, too extreme and ridiculous.
And while this takes some explaining, arty performer Grimes was already in on the same joke — three years ahead of Musk.
In 2015, she created a character named “Rococo Basilisk” for a video of her song “Flesh Without Blood.” “I don’t know if you’ve heard of Roko’s Basilisk,” she told Fuse. “[This character] is doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she’s also kind of like Marie Antoinette.”
“Elon was researching the idea of joking about Rococo Basilisk, and when he saw Grimes had already joked about it, he reached out to her,” says the insider. “Grimes said this was the first time in three years that anyone understood the joke. They were both poking fun at AI.”
Musk is well known for warning of an AI apocalypse, calling it “more dangerous than nukes.”
SpaceX and Tesla founder Musk has been very public in his past fandom for Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher. He tweeted out her artsy video with Janelle Monae for the song “Venus Fly” this past March, adding “Best music video art I’ve seen in a while.”
Grimes shot to fame in 2012 with her third studio album, “Visions,” and also put out the critically acclaimed “Art Angels” in 2015. She recently revealed she has clashed with her label 4AD, saying “There’s some srsly f–ked up and crazy s–t going behind the scenes in my career,” but that she will be releasing another album with 4AD, followed by independent music. “I just took a month off, a lot of insane s–t went down and I’m reorienting my life,” she wrote on Instagram. “I have a deep well of s–t this time, like sooo many songs so after my album I’ll be able to consistently release new music.”
She was a double major in psychology and philosophy, with minors in Russian and electro-acoustics before she dropped out of school to follow her music career.
The tech billionaire also tweeted his approval of her Spotify playlist “Go Flex & Psycho.” “Glad ur finally listening to cyberpunk speedwae hahaha,” she responded. “Sounds great riding my cyborg,” he hit back.
Just last week they had another online in-joke. After Musk tweeted a video created from long-exposure photos of a comet, Grimes said “that’s a lot of cocaine,” to which he responded, “Yeah, most people don’t know this, but comets [are] mostly made of cocaine.”
Aside from flaunting their banter online, Musk hinted at his talented Met Gala date on Monday, tweeting “Rococo basilisk,” and a link to the Rococo Wikipedia page.
Tonight at the Met Gala 2018, the most unexpected duo made an appearance: Grimes and Elon Musk. Claire Boucher and the SpaceX CEO/Tesla co-founder arrived together on the red carpet. Musk told reporters that he helped design Grimes’ dress. He also described their outing together as a “date night.”
Earlier today, Page Six reported that the two have been dating. When reached for more information, Grimes’ representative offered Pitchfork no comment.
Musk is a fan of Boucher’s music—back in March, he tweeted a link of Grimes and Janelle Monáe’s “Venus Fly” music video, saying, “Best music video art I’ve seen in a while.” The two have since been tweeting back and forth, joking about comets and discussing Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys.
Musk and Boucher allegedly started talking when he saw she beat him to a “Rococo Basilisk” joke—a mashup of the baroque 18th century European style and artificial intelligence thought experiment Roko’s Basilisk.
This article was originally published on Monday, May 7 at 9:51 p.m. EST. It was last updated on May 7 at 11:10 p.m. EST.
