Musk predicts AI will render human labor optional within decade
Elon Musk said he “got carried away, frankly” with his relationship with President Donald Trump and his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, according to an interview published Thursday by The Economist.
The world’s richest person — who briefly became the first trillionaire in June after his rocket company SpaceX floated on the New York Stock Exchange — made the admission during a 90-minute conversation recorded at a Tesla factory in Texas. Musk helped elect Trump in 2024 with $200 million in financial backing, then served as head of DOGE, where he oversaw $150 billion in budget cuts and forced tens of thousands of federal employees out of their jobs, according to The Guardian, which reported on the interview.
Musk did not expand on his “carried away” statement, according to The Economist, but appeared aware of the consequences of his foray into Washington. In a December podcast, he said his approach to the federal government had been only partially successful and that given the opportunity he probably would not do it again, according to The Economist.
The interview spanned topics beyond politics. Musk predicted that AI systems and robots will eventually handle most digital and physical jobs. He said within five years, AI intelligence systems may surpass the sum of all human intelligence, and within 10 years, robots in the workplace will produce an era of “amazing abundance” such that money will become meaningless.
Musk, The Economist said, plans to power his AI venture with data centers in space, a concept experts have described as “catastrophic” for Earth. The outlet wrote in an accompanying analysis that Musk has “a record of being right about technology in fields such as electric cars, rockets and satellite communications that confounded other engineers and entrepreneurs.”
On geopolitics, Musk offered several predictions. He said the United Kingdom — a country he has not visited in years but whose politics, particularly on immigration and race, he has recently followed — will become engulfed in a civil war within 20 years. When asked whether he was anti-Muslim, Musk attacked the questioner, according to The Economist. “I’m against rape and murder,” Musk said. “I’m against the imposition of rules and laws that are contrary to what we’ve come to accept in the west.”
He described media characterizations of Europe’s far right as “false, misleading and nonsense,” arguing that it consists of “normal people” seeking safe cities, secure borders and sensible spending, according to The Economist. The magazine said in its analysis that Musk’s views “strike many as plain-speaking and strike many more, including The Economist, as plainly bigoted.”
Musk also addressed the war in Ukraine, where his Starlink satellites have supported the country’s military against Russia. Despite this, Musk said any peace deal should include territorial gains for Russia.
On the economic consequences of AI, Musk said he would be willing to pay “trillions in tax” to fund what he called “universal high income” for humans after automation eliminates most jobs. He added that amid an infinite supply of goods and services produced by machines, deflation will be a bigger problem than inflation, and governments should “issue people cheques.”
The interview also covered Musk’s ambitions in space. He said in 2024 that humans could set foot on Mars by 2028. The universe, Musk said according to The Economist, could be a computer simulation created by aliens. “The things I’m doing are so preposterous that it’s hard to believe they’re real,” he said.