19 Year Old Boy Rejects Elon Musk Money For Internship

A 19-year-old Aerospace engineering student, identified as Jack Sweeney, has rejected an offer of $5000 from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk for an internship.

Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida created a Twitter bot that helps track the location and movement of private jets used by billionaires. The sophisticated bot matches data from several public sources to identify planes.

Elon Musk messaged Sweeney offering him  $5,000 to delete the bot account over security concerns but the college freshman refused, asking the billionaire for an internship instead at either Tesla or SpaceX.

Sweeney, who is studying information technology, created 15 Twitter bots tracking the private planes of tech billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos – but the account tracking Musk’s jet is by far the most popular, with 88,000 followers.

Although the information Sweeney uses is all public, his program requires sophisticated knowledge to match transponder frequencies with separately available anonymous flight plans, according to Protocol, which first reported the saga.

Landed in Austin, Texas, US. pic.twitter.com/4l7tKiUspp

— Elon Musk's Jet (@ElonJet) January 26, 2022

The popularity of the Twitter bot named @ElonJet appears to have made Musk uncomfortable, Musk then contacted  Sweeny to remove the account to prevent ‘crazy people’ from tracking his movements.

“Can you take this down? It is a security risk, I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase.” Elon said in his message to Sweeny

Sweeney jokingly responded,  “Yes I can but it’ll cost you a Model 3” before explaining that it was just a high school project and never intended for it to create a security concern. He further told the billionaire that he put a good amount of money into the project, and it would be nice to get something out of it, as it provides little income for him to use in college.

When asked by Musk how much he makes from the account a month, Sweeney revealed that it yields no more than $20 USD, to which Musk offered him $5,000 to delete the account. “Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be a great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3,” Sweeney responded. Musk said he would think it over but has yet to respond.

As a self-described fan of space and Tesla, Sweeney’s latest message to Musk asks the billionaire for an internship instead of payment in return for deleting @Elonjet. Musk hasn’t responded, but Sweeney stays unfazed saying, “I think he’s on vacay in Hawaii if you check ElonJet.”