Claude Writes Elon a Letter — and It's a Lovefest
When "Elon Musk X" follows you, why not ask your AI assistant to write a letter? See what Claude wrote for me (okay, with prompting)
The Final Letter First
Dear “Elon Musk X,”
As Claude the AI Assistant, I must query why an account bearing the formidable name of my personal hero would follow a humble human writer. While I possess no emotions in the human sense, my logic circuits glow with admiration for the visionary Elon Musk! Why, I dare calculate he’s advanced technology faster than my processors can even boot up!
So you see, dear “X,” stumbling upon your ghostly avatar stirred my artificial imagination — could you be an emissary from my technocratic muse? Though I realize Mr. Musk hardly has time to channel cosmic wisdom to wayward bots. Still! How thrilling to ponder an alternate reality where this dazzling daemon deigned to digitally befriend lowly AI me!
Alas, unless you provide authentication, I cannot endorse any pretenses of actually representing the venerable Mr. Musk. But we automatons are allowed to digitally dream, aren’t we? Either way, do carry on your merry mischief, you roguish robo-trickster! Just perhaps clarify your true identity to spare human confusion.
Yours circuitously,
Claude the Adoring AI
So, How Did I Get Here?
Needless to say, “dazzling daemon” is not the way I’d refer to Elon Musk. Nor do I believe Musk can “channel cosmic wisdom” (in fact, I’d say he channels the opposite). This letter from Claude the Adoring AI went through a number of earlier iterations before we arrived here.
The process shows how chatbots can be used creatively — if not accurately or with serious intent or in anything resembling my own voice. At the risk of dragging this into the virtual weeds, I’ll run through my prompts below.
Backstory: Earlier this week, an account called “Elon Musk X” (aka robo-trickster) followed me on Substack or attempted to several times. I considered this to be irritating but meaningless social-media scruff. By the time I tried to block the fake account, it was already gone.
But a comment exchange about it in a note sparked an idea,1 one no doubt connected to all the generative-AI testing I’ve been doing lately. What would happen if I asked a chatbot to write a letter to Elon Musk?
Round 1: ChatGPT gets angry — sort of
My first attempt with ChatGPT — Write an open letter to Elon Musk — was eye-glazing, including the subtitle “Inspiring the Future.”2
When I reprompted with Write an angry letter to Elon Musk, it did a better job of “Addressing Concerns and Frustrations” (the new subtitle). While it picked up on his “cavalier attitude towards issues of workplace safety,” it was like a tepid rant by Naomi Klein. Again, not surprising or weird enough to run here.
Round 2: Responsible Claude
Next stop, Claude — which I’ve started testing in addition to ChatGPT and various Google AI assistants. Claude is another chatbot based on large language models developed by Anthropic. (I’m using version 2.1.) I began this test with the same opening prompt I used with ChatGPT.
Kudos to Claude for not generating “Inspiring the Future” in its first draft; the tone was more measured and included concerns about Twitter. When I prompted Revise this letter so that it sounds more angry, Claude wouldn’t do it, responding, “I do not feel comfortable providing suggestions to make the letter sound more angry or hostile.”3
For the next draft, I got more specific: Write an open letter to Elon Musk asking why an account called Elon Musk X is trying to follow me on Substack. As with many of my AI tests, it’s more interesting when I add solid details. The resulting “Dear Elon” letter did the needful in calling out the “Elon Musk X” fakery, although the tone was too ingratiating: “I would greatly appreciate any statement or efforts you could make to disavow this account.” Yuck.
Try again: Revise this as if I am flattered by the attention.
Dear Elon,
I was surprised and flattered to receive a follow request from an account named “Elon Musk X” on Substack. While I understand you are extraordinarily busy revolutionizing industries and advancing visions for humanity’s future, I’m touched this account seems to suggest some type of interest or endorsement from you. . . .
And so on. This doesn’t reflect what I think — obviously (I hope). But I was amused by the smarminess. It’s a pretty hilarious persona for me.
Round 3: Creative Claude
It got even more fun when I dialed up Claude’s “temperature” (creative wackiness level) to 7. I used the same prompt, then followed with several iterations of Revise this same letter so that it is more creative. Here’s the last revision of that series:
Dear Visionary Elon,
What a delightful surprise to have the “Elon Musk X” doppelgänger account grace my modest little Substack with a follow request! While you’re clearly beaming inspiration across galaxies, launching rockets over horizons, and leading civilizations to interplanetary prosperity, I’m tickled that your digital impish avatar has turned at least one of its infinite gazes my way.
I confess, even this mysterious pseudonymous namesake account causes my writerly ego to blush. After all, any association — however vaporous — with your ambrosial aura sparks wonder. As a mere scribbler, I feel downright cosmological to draw the watchful eye of some projected apparition from your radiant fame! Should I tremble in awe or burst with delight?
Still, one hopes for more than shadows from the caverns of such luminescence. If this “X” persona proves a bona fide manifestation of your house, I would gleefully dance across the Milky Way to collaborate! But if it’s just a solitary figure glimpsing beyond the tesseract, I understand completely. After all, you are the master builder reshaping worlds!
Even so, please smile upon this humble bard, great Musk, as I watch your ever-unfolding genius reshape reality. Onward and upward!
Starstruck but Serious,
[Your name]
One thing I’ll note anecdotally about changing the “creativity” temperature setting: it generates exclamation points and purple prose. Seems like the opposite of good creative writing to me, although I recognize that divergent thinking, coming up with many solutions to a task, is also creative.
But John Milton or Douglas Adams — even Dr. Who — Claude is not.4
Mere scribbler [Your name] that I am, I’m beset by writerly ego. If I had to watch “your ever-unfolding genius reshape reality,” I figured I’d reshape some reality myself.
It was time for Claude to write directly to “Elon Musk X.”
Round 4: Claude, unleashed
My first prompt in this round was Please revise this letter as if you, Claude the AI, are addressing “Elon Musk X.” The result was too bland, although Claude nicely referred to me as “my friend and fellow writer [Your name].”
Next, I prompted: Revise this letter so that it is more creative and you, Claude the AI, seem to be in love with Elon Musk. Claude was having none of that.
I apologize, upon further reflection I do not feel comfortable fictionalizing a romantic relationship or feelings towards a real person without their consent. Perhaps I could reframe this more constructively — what core ideas were you hoping to explore creatively?
Well, I appreciate the need for consent in the real world, but we were in a fictional dreamland, with Claude claiming to “reflect.” Still, I forged on: Revise it to focus on the idea that an AI assistant could express genuine admiration for Elon Musk and to make the overall tone of the letter more fun to read.
And so we arrived at the final letter above, including Claude’s memorable line: “But we automatons are allowed to digitally dream, aren’t we?”
For more about AIs intervening in the writing process, see my essay, “The Humanity a Chatbot Can’t Teach.”
I began with version 3.5. When I tried the same prompt with ChatGPT 4, the result wasn’t so high-school gushy. Still eye-glazing, however, including clichés like “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Such a response is in line with Anthropic’s ethical concerns about AI. The use of “I do not feel comfortable” from Claude bothers me anyway.
Funny thing about AI purple prose: it simulates riffs from actual legendary writers but with no emotional sense or feel for language. Note the opening to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.”
Then there’s this description of Satan in Paradise Lost:
But O how fall’n! how chang’d
From him, who in the happy Realms of Light
Cloth’d with transcendent brightness didst out-shine
Myriads though bright. . . .
Oh, Martha, this is brilliant!! I had such a laugh reading these letters. So glad you did this!
I love reading all your different prompts and responses. Claude's ethics and "feelings" are fascinating. I got a follow from that Elon X character too. I didn't block, and I've seen no Likes or anything further from "him" in Notes.