Elon Musk created a secretive 'laboratory school' for brilliant kids who love flamethrowers

It may be the most exclusive school in the world. Housed somewhere inside the sprawling Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters of rocket manufacturer SpaceX, Ad Astra reportedly has less than 50 students between seven and 14-years old, perpetually-evolving curriculum, and no formal grading. Instead, Ars Technica reports, the mysterious not-for-profit school functions like a "venture capital incubator" in which students work in teams to drill into some of the most daunting topics of our time: robotics, nuclear politics and the dangers posed by artificial intelligence. The latter is no surprise considering that Ad Astra was founded by Elon Musk, the billionaire inventor who has been stridently warning about the risks posed by intelligent machines for several years now. "I just didn't see that the regular schools were doing the things that I thought should be done," Musk told a Chinese TV station in 2015.