Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes his company’s forays into humanoid robotics and broader technological developments could lead to a drastic reshaping of the American and global economies.
At the company’s recent shareholder meeting, Musk said Tesla’s Optimus robot could go on to become “the biggest product of all time by far,” and that the new capabilities it offers will “actually eliminate poverty.”
During an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast days earlier, Musk said that advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence could lead to an enhanced form of universal basic income (UBI), in which “anyone can have any products or services that they want.”
Why It Matters
Musk’s enthusiasm for automation and the promise of artificial intelligence, coming as Tesla prepares for the mass production of its humanoid robot, has been echoed by certain business leaders across the United States. Figures such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have predicted positive changes to global working and living conditions.
However, this has been accompanied by concerns that AI could upend the American workforce, with some viewing a new forms of social safety nets such as UBI a necessity rather than a luxury given the widespread job displacement AI adoption could result in.
What To Know
During last week’s meeting, at which shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package for Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency predicted that there could eventually be “tens of billions” of the company’s Optimus robots in circulation globally. Musk touted the capabilities of Optimus, stating that it will be able to perform surgery “better than the best human surgeon” and could be used to prevent “future crime,” while also calling the robot “kind of like an infinite money glitch.”
On The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk predicted that AI and the mass adoption of robots like Optimus would be a positive development, making work “optional” for the many by eliminating the need for human labor.
“You’ll have robots plus AI and we’ll have, in a benign scenario, universal high income—not just universal basic income—universal high income.”
Musk is not the only tech leader to suggest that AI has brought the notion of a basic income into serious consideration. Entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who was briefly linked to Musk’s America Party, is considered a main proponent of the idea in the U.S., and told Newsweek that he still sees it as something that will appear increasingly appropriate if “millions of Americans that are replaced and supplanted by AI.”
What People Are Saying
Elon Musk, during Tesla’s shareholder meeting on November 6, said: “Things do get kind of wild from an economic standpoint because at a certain point, with AI and robotics, you can actually increase the global economy by a factor of 10 or maybe 100. There’s not, like, an obvious limit. So, like, Optimus is kind of like an infinite money glitch. And maybe there won’t even be money in the future. Money might be measured in terms of wattage, like how much power can you bring to bear from an electrical standpoint.”
What Happens Next
Musk has previously said that he hopes Optimus will be deployed internally at Tesla factories by 2025, with high-volume production for other companies targeted for 2026.
Tesla is currently building its first high-volume Optimus production line in Fremont, California, and plans to expand to a 10 million-unit-per-year production line at its Gigafactory in Texas.