Elon Musk Claims Cash Will not Exist within the Future (and Jensen Huang Would Like a Heads Up)

Elon Musk made some wild claims on the US-Saudi Funding Discussion board on the Kennedy Middle in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, insisting that his Optimus robotic would repair poverty, folks wouldn’t should work sooner or later, and cash would finally grow to be irrelevant. Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, was additionally on stage and joked that he’d like Musk to provide him a heads up simply earlier than forex not turns into a factor.

“AI and humanoid robots will truly eradicate poverty,” Musk claimed on Wednesday. “And Tesla gained’t be the one one which makes them. I believe Tesla will pioneer this, however there might be many different firms that make humanoid robots. However there’s solely mainly one approach to make everybody rich, and that’s AI and robotics.”

The Tesla CEO has regularly insisted in latest months that his robots will deliver a kind of post-scarcity future the place no one has to work. The billionaire mentioned it explicitly on Wednesday when requested about what he thinks the longer term holds for individuals who are involved about AI and robots changing jobs.

“My prediction is that work might be non-obligatory,” Musk mentioned, noting that he was speaking about 10-20 years from now.

The billionaire went on to take his now-common prediction even additional, claiming that in such a world the place robots are doing all of the labor, cash gained’t exist anymore.

“I’d all the time suggest folks learn Iain Banks’ Tradition books to get a way for what a possible optimistic AI future is like. And curiously, in these books, cash is not… doesn’t exist. It’s form of fascinating,” Musk mentioned.

“My guess is, in the event you exit lengthy sufficient, assuming there’s a continued enchancment in AI and robotics, which appears probably, the cash will cease being related in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later,” Musk continued.

The moderator of the dialogue requested, “Jensen, any ideas?” as the group laughed. “By the best way, the Nvidia earnings name is later at this time,” Musk mentioned, becoming a member of the laughter.

Huang shifted uncomfortably in his seat and laughed to himself with a form of bewildered look. “And by the best way, since forex is irrelevant…” Huang joked, trailing off. “Elon simply desires to share with you breaking information.”

After snicker, Huang received critical once more and form of hedged on what Musk was saying. Huang has beforehand taken the alternative view of the group that insists there gained’t be any work sooner or later. Again in August, Huang mentioned that AI and automation will truly make everybody busier. Huang acknowledged that issues could be totally different, together with issues like how college students be taught and the way folks do their work. However he caught to his weapons in predicting that individuals will truly simply be busier as a result of they will accomplish extra of their targets.

“It’s my guess that Elon might be busier because of AI. I’m gonna be busier because of AI,” mentioned Huang. “And the explanation for that’s as a result of now we have so many concepts we wanna pursue, so many issues that we nonetheless have in our backlog inside our firm that we are able to go pursue. If we had been extra productive, we are able to get to these issues sooner, and so within the close to time period, I’d say that there’s each proof that we’ll be extra productive and but nonetheless be busier as a result of now we have so many concepts.”

Huang then joked that since he texts with Musk usually, he hopes the Tesla CEO will give him a heads up earlier than forex is not related. Musk mentioned, “You’ll see it coming.”

Musk is consistently speaking about how the robots he’s growing at Tesla, generally known as Optimus, are the important thing to eliminating poverty. However, as we’ve written earlier than, that is most likely his most ridiculous lie. Enhancing effectivity doesn’t redistribute wealth. Musk by no means addresses who might be paying People to only sit round and do nothing whereas billions of robots truly carry out the labor. Is it the federal government? As a result of that may require a large change in political and financial constructions.

And why ought to we consider Musk, of all folks, desires to pay folks for sitting round? That is the person who stormed into the federal authorities earlier this yr along with his so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) and determined that too many individuals had been taking advantage of presidency advantages. He’s additionally the man who has known as the phrase homeless a “propaganda phrase” for “violent drug addicts.”

Musk regularly tries to recommend that individuals experiencing homelessness don’t have jobs, regardless that someplace between 40 and 60% of people that don’t have housing are employed, in response to government estimates. He doesn’t give a fuck about poverty. He cares about making extra money and is on monitor to grow to be the world’s first trillionaire. And he by no means talks concerning the mechanism by which his utopian concept for a leisure society would truly work.

The concepts Musk promotes had been extraordinarily widespread in Twentieth-century futurism. And it’s clear that’s the place he’s drawing his inspiration, even citing Iain Banks and his utopian Culture series of books on Wednesday. However none of it is smart except you determine some form of radical socialist or communist entity on the coronary heart of this imaginative and prescient to distribute the requirements to stay.

Musk desires to promote you his robots, and that is smart in our present financial system. However after he sells you a robotic, it doesn’t observe that the one who owns that robotic would not should work. It’s a bit like imagining that the entire home equipment in your house proper now are one way or the other paying for themselves. They’re not. They could enhance your life, however they don’t institute a political or financial system whereby folks not should work. If all wealth is derived from robots on this imaginary system Musk creates, he must be the one redistributing his wealth to pay for everybody else not working.

The tip of the dialogue with Musk and Huang was reminder of the place we’re truly located right here in 2025. The Saudi moderator mentioned “my boss and your bosses goes to speak subsequent,” referring to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and President Donald Trump. The 2 tech executives didn’t vocally object to Donald Trump being known as their “boss.” However it stripped away the fantasy Musk appeared to be engaged in about robotics and AI delivering utopia anytime quickly.

Trump and MBS haven’t any plans to let folks sit round and receives a commission for doing nothing. And so they’re constructing a future the place that might by no means conceivably occur.