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, individuals wouldn’t should work sooner or later, and cash would ultimately change into irrelevant. Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, was additionally on stage and joked that he’d like Musk to present him a heads up simply earlier than forex now not turns into a factor.

“AI and humanoid robots will truly get rid of poverty,” Musk claimed on Wednesday. “And Tesla received’t be the one one which makes them. I feel Tesla will pioneer this, however there will probably be many different corporations that make humanoid robots. However there’s solely mainly one technique to make everybody rich, and that’s AI and robotics.”

The Tesla CEO has continuously insisted in latest months that his robots will deliver a kind of post-scarcity future the place no person 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 will probably be elective,” 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 received’t exist anymore.

“I’d at all times advocate individuals 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 now not… doesn’t exist. It’s form of attention-grabbing,” Musk mentioned.

“My guess is, in case you exit lengthy sufficient, assuming there’s a continued enchancment in AI and robotics, which appears seemingly, 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 gang laughed. “By the way in which, the Nvidia earnings name is later in the present day,” 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 way in which, since forex is irrelevant…” Huang joked, trailing off. “Elon simply needs to share with you breaking information.”

After a very good snicker, Huang bought severe once more and kind of hedged on what Musk was saying. Huang has beforehand taken the alternative view of the gang that insists there received’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 completely different, together with issues like how college students be taught and the way individuals do their work. However he caught to his weapons in predicting that folks will truly simply be busier as a result of they will accomplish extra of their objectives.

“It’s my guess that Elon will probably 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 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’d 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 forex is now 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 in all probability his most ridiculous lie. Enhancing effectivity doesn’t redistribute wealth. Musk by no means addresses who will probably 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 might require a large change in political and financial constructions.

And why ought to we consider Musk, of all individuals, needs to pay individuals for sitting round? That is the person who stormed into the federal authorities earlier this 12 months 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 continuously tries to counsel 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 observe to change into 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 form 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 sensible in our present financial system. However after he sells you a robotic, it doesn’t observe that the one who owns that robotic would now not should work. It’s a bit like imagining that all the home equipment in your house proper now are in some way paying for themselves. They’re not. They might enhance your life, however they don’t institute a political or financial system whereby individuals 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 very good 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.” 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 individuals 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.