Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, had been rumored to be dating Tesla CEO, SpaceX found, and all-around genius Elon Musk. On Monday, May 7, the two finally made their relationship public when they walked the red carpet together ahead of the 2018 Met Gala in New York City. The way the two allegedly met was through social media.
According to a report from Page Six, Musk noticed the 30-year-old musician through a joke he was going to make on Twitter about artificial intelligence. However, he discovered that Grimes had already made the witty remark.
“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,” an insider told the magazine. “Grimes said this was the first time in three years that anyone understood the joke. They were both poking fun at AI.”
If you aren’t a genius and don’t get the joke — full disclosure: that was waaaaay over my head — here is an explanation:
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.
Sure, we will go with that.
Grimes was a double major in psychology and philosophy before dropping out of school to pursue music. But that knowledge apparently stuck with her, because it was enough to make a joke that only a genius billionaire like Musk could understand.
You can see photos of the new couple on the red carpet of the Met Gala below: