Smyth: My free advice for Elon Musk

A 21-year-old college student, who was praised by Elon Musk for his idea to improve Twitter, has said he would advise the billionaire to "be more humble and listen to dissenting opinions".

In April, Musk asked his followers for suggestions on how to improve Twitter, after he took a 9.2% stake in the company. Among the thousands of responses, Musk singled out one from Jackson Smyth, a University of California, Berkeley student.

Smyth's suggestion was to allow users to create their own custom feeds and have more control over the content they see.

Musk praised Smyth's idea, saying it was "very interesting".

But in an interview with the BBC, Smyth said he would advise Musk to "be more humble and listen to dissenting opinions".

"I think he's a very smart guy, but I think he can be a little bit arrogant at times," Smyth said. "I think he needs to be more open to listening to other people's ideas, even if they're not his own."

Smyth also said he believes Musk should focus on making Twitter a more positive and inclusive platform.

"I think he needs to do a better job of making sure that Twitter is a place where people feel safe and comfortable expressing themselves," Smyth said. "I think he needs to do a better job of cracking down on hate speech and misinformation."

Musk has made a number of changes to Twitter since he took over, including relaxing the platform's content moderation policies.

It remains to be seen whether Musk will take Smyth's advice. But it's clear that the young student has some wise words for the world's richest man.