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 Heart in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, insisting that his Optimus robotic would repair poverty, folks wouldn’t must work sooner or later, and cash would finally turn out to be irrelevant. Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, was additionally on stage and joked that he’d like Musk to offer him a heads up simply earlier than forex not turns into a factor.

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

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

“My prediction is that work might be non-compulsory,” Musk stated, 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 received’t exist anymore.

“I’d at all times advocate folks learn Iain Banks’ Tradition books to get a way for what a possible constructive AI future is like. And curiously, in these books, cash is not… doesn’t exist. It’s type of attention-grabbing,” Musk stated.

“My guess is, if you happen to 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 way in which, the Nvidia earnings name is later right this moment,” Musk stated, becoming a member of the laughter.

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

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

“It’s my guess that Elon might be busier on account of AI. I’m gonna be busier on account of AI,” stated Huang. “And the rationale for that’s as a result of we now have so many concepts we wanna pursue, so many issues that we nonetheless have in our backlog inside our firm that we will go pursue. If we have been extra productive, we will 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 we now 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 stated, “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 Individuals to simply sit round and do nothing whereas billions of robots really carry out the labor. Is it the federal government? As a result of that might require a large change in political and financial buildings.

And why ought to we consider Musk, of all folks, needs to pay folks for sitting round? That is the person who stormed into the federal authorities earlier this 12 months together with his so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) and determined that too many individuals have been taking advantage of presidency advantages. He’s additionally the man who has referred to as the phrase homeless a “propaganda phrase” for “violent drug addicts.”

Musk often tries to recommend that folks experiencing homelessness don’t have jobs, regardless that someplace between 40 and 60% of people that don’t have housing are employed, based on government estimates. He doesn’t give a fuck about poverty. He cares about making more cash and is on monitor to turn out to be the world’s first trillionaire. And he by no means talks in regards to the mechanism by which his utopian thought for a leisure society would really work.

The concepts Musk promotes have 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 until you determine some type of radical socialist or communist entity on the coronary heart of this imaginative and prescient to distribute the requirements to dwell.

Musk needs 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 must work. It’s a bit like imagining that the entire home equipment in your house proper now are someway paying for themselves. They’re not. They could enhance your life, however they don’t institute a political or financial system whereby folks not must 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 top of the dialogue with Musk and Huang was reminder of the place we’re really located right here in 2025. The Saudi moderator stated “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 referred to as their “boss.” Nevertheless it stripped away the fantasy Musk gave the impression 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 would by no means conceivably occur.