Bill Gates was probably otherwise engaged. Mark Zuckerberg was busy in the metaverse. And Jeff Bezos was tied up on his next rocket trip. When the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was looking for a major technology tycoon to host a conversation with at his Artificial Intelligence summit later this week those were probably the names at the top of the wish list. When all of them declined, however, the Prime Minister settled for the Tesla founder Elon Musk instead. But hold on. While Musk is without question a major tycoon, he is also a huge wild card. And Sunak may well end up regretting his choice.

Whether he lights up a spliff with the man who is banning smoking cigarettes remains to be seen. But it is the kind of stunt Musk would find amusing

Musk is certainly a catch. One of the richest men in the world, he has built Tesla up into an impressive automobile company. He has created Space X, one of the fastest growing space exploration businesses. He has dozens of other ventures, from neuroscience to tunnelling. And he has taken control of X, the site formerly known as Twitter, and while that has yet to prove a success, to put it mildly, it has made him a major public figure. In many ways, he is one of the most interesting men in the world right now, and certainly one whose views on AI are worth hearing.

The trouble is, Musk is also likely to highlight all of Sunak’s weaknesses. Musk is bold, radical, disruptive, innovative and a risk taker. By contrast, Sunak is cautious and managerial. He does not take many risks and he does not have many fresh ideas. On top of that, as a fan of Ayn Rand, Musk has a libertarian streak that could make for an uncomfortable clash of views. It is unlikely that Musk follows Tory party politics very closely, but if he does he is far more likely to be in the Liz Truss camp than Sunak’s. On top of all that, he has a childish taste for cannabis jokes. Whether he lights up a spliff with the man who is banning smoking cigarettes remains to be seen. But it is the kind of stunt Musk would find amusing.

Of course, it would be perfectly understandable given the state of the polls if Sunak already had an eye on his next job. He may well want to follow Sir Nick Clegg, a mere deputy PM after all, into a high-profile tech role. He might be an excellent chief accountant at SpaceX or Tesla. Even so, it would have been better to meet Musk in private. A live interview has the potential to go horribly wrong.