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 should work sooner or later, and cash would ultimately 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 foreign money now 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 feel Tesla will pioneer this, however there shall be many different corporations that make humanoid robots. However there’s solely mainly one strategy to make everybody rich, and that’s AI and robotics.”

The Tesla CEO has often insisted in current months that his robots will deliver a kind of post-scarcity future the place no one has to work. The billionaire stated 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 shall be elective,” 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 gained’t exist anymore.

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

“My guess is, in case 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 in the present day,” Musk stated, becoming a member of the laughter.

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

After a great chortle, Huang obtained severe 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 stated that AI and automation will truly make everybody busier. Huang acknowledged that issues can be completely 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 folks will truly simply be busier as a result of they’ll accomplish extra of their objectives.

“It’s my guess that Elon shall be busier because of AI. I’m gonna be busier because of AI,” stated 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 will go pursue. If we had been extra productive, we will get to these issues sooner, and so within the close to time period, I might say that there’s each proof that we are going to 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 foreign money is now 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 in all probability his most ridiculous lie. Bettering effectivity doesn’t redistribute wealth. Musk by no means addresses who shall be paying People to simply sit round and do nothing whereas billions of robots truly carry out the labor. Is it the federal government? As a result of that will 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 together 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 often tries to counsel that folks experiencing homelessness don’t have jobs, although someplace between 40 and 60% of people that don’t have housing are employed, in accordance with 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 concerning the mechanism by which his utopian concept for a leisure society would truly work.

The concepts Musk promotes had been extraordinarily frequent 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 sensible except you determine some sort of radical socialist or communist entity on the coronary heart of this imaginative and prescient to distribute the requirements to dwell.

Musk desires to promote you his robots, and that is sensible in our present financial system. However after he sells you a robotic, it doesn’t observe that the one that owns that robotic would now not should work. It’s a bit like imagining that the entire home equipment in your house proper now are by some means paying for themselves. They’re not. They could enhance your life, however they don’t institute a political or financial system whereby folks now 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 a great reminder of the place we’re truly 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 known as their “boss.” However it stripped away the fantasy Musk gave the impression to be engaged in about robotics and AI delivering utopia anytime quickly.

Trump and MBS don’t have any plans to let folks sit round and receives a commission for doing nothing. They usually’re constructing a future the place that would by no means conceivably occur.