An interview with Elon Musk

Summary

Economist Podcasts – Insider: Elon Musk Interview (July 23, 2026)

Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth, wide-ranging interview between The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, and Elon Musk. Recorded in the Tesla Giga factory in Texas, the discussion covers Musk’s vision for the next decade—particularly regarding AI, robotics, economic transformation, geopolitics, his role in business and politics, the future of work, and his controversial positions on migration, Europe, and public discourse. The tone is occasionally combative but always lively, with both participants pushing each other on their assumptions and predictions.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

I. The Future According to Elon Musk: AI and Abundance

Musk’s Vision for 2036

• Musk predicts an overwhelming rise in artificial intelligence:

  “In 10 years I would expect artificial intelligence to be far greater than the sum of human intelligence. Like far greater.” (03:12)

• He anticipates a world of “amazing abundance,” positing that AIs and humanoid robots will render goods and services so plentiful “that there's more... than any human could possibly consume.” (03:53)
• This abundance could make money itself “not matter”:

  “Money won’t matter in 2036.” (06:38)

The Role of Musk’s Companies

• Musk sees his companies pivoting to harness both digital and physical intelligence through AI and robotics.

  “You need the end effectors in the form of humanoid robotics. Basically lots of bots... And then you can go from intelligence manifesting itself only digitally to shaping atoms.” (04:58)

• On business models: He suggests companies will move from providing digital services (like AI) to also delivering physical goods and services via autonomous robots.

---

II. AI Governance & Safety

Control and Safety in a Superintelligent World

• Musk expresses skepticism that humans will meaningfully control superintelligent AI:

  “I think it is unlikely... the difference InTELLIGENCE between AI and humans is vastly greater than... between AI and chimpanzees, it's hard to imagine that the chimpanzees would be in charge.” (08:18)

• On risk: Musk acknowledges a non-zero but minority chance (10–20%) of “doom” from AI—while also saying he now prefers to “look on the bright side” given the momentum is “inexorable.” (10:00, 11:20)
• He proposes regular coordination among frontier AI companies as a practical near-term step—such as weekly calls and peer pre-release testing to mitigate extreme risks (13:59–16:03).

On Trust and Competition among AI Companies

• Musk is candid about the competitive and often personal friction in the field:

  “I'm not a fan of Sam [Altman]... I think it's a legitimate [criticism].” (25:53)

• Nonetheless, he describes a willingness to “set aside personal differences for the good of the world.” (27:05)

---

III. Geopolitics and AI

China, the West, and the Race for AI

• Musk expresses concern that China’s rapid progress could outpace the West if given enough compute and electricity:

  “If they had a lot of compute, there's a good chance that they would be the leaders.” (17:27)

• He discusses physical constraints (chips, electricity, cooling), noting that China’s main shortfall is currently chips rather than power (due to US export controls), while the West now faces energy bottlenecks. (20:33–21:13)
• On AI safety, Musk advocates international cooperation—especially between US and China—since “really just the US Government and the Chinese government... have the power to take action here.” (22:11)

---

IV. Economic Disruption: Jobs, Universal Income & Deflation

Mass Job Displacement and Universal Income

• Musk forecasts rapid job displacement:

  “AI will be able to do any job better than any person can do that job... very quickly of jobs that are digital or really anything that involves a person at a computer or on a phone, AI will be able to do all that very soon.” (28:40)

• Physical jobs will also be automated, as humanoid robots reach maturity.
• He predicts “work will be optional,” likening future work to a hobby (e.g., gardening). (30:18)
• Musk supports some kind of “universal high income,” arguing that technology-driven abundance will lead to deflation, not inflation. Government could “just simply issue people checks.” (31:51, 34:31)

Taxes and Redistribution

• Musk indicates willingness to pay large taxes but questions whether taxation will matter in a deflationary, post-scarcity world. (37:10)
• On share ownership: The SpaceX IPO was partly to allow broader public participation and ownership. (37:50)

---

V. Power, Control, and Succession

Company Structure & Control

• Musk defends his tight control over his companies (analogous to other tech giants) as necessary for long-term, risky bets (e.g., Mars):

  “I just need some way to... focus on long term... 5 to 10 years.” (40:55, 42:18)

• On “key man risk,” he claims strong roadmaps exist if he were to exit unexpectedly, though admits his unique contribution is to deliver “breakthrough products” (as Jobs did at Apple). (45:31)

---

VI. Geopolitical Power via Starlink and Political Involvement

Starlink’s Role in Ukraine & Personal Power

• Musk acknowledges the tremendous influence Starlink has had in Ukraine, but disputes having “decided the outcome.”
• He worked with the Ukrainian government to whitelist Starlink terminals but notes unintended consequences for civilians. (50:03–50:42)
• Musk expresses a pragmatic, even cynical, view on seeking peace:

  “There are no angels in war.” (49:38, 51:54)

US Politics and “Doge” Spending Cuts

• He recounts his intense involvement in US politics, supporting Trump and deficit reduction initiatives, and is unapologetic about abrupt program cuts:

  “I think I got a little too involved in politics, got carried away, frankly.” (54:33) “Zero [people] died because Doge.” (59:23)

---

VII. Europe, Migration and the “Far Right” Accusations

Views on European Immigration and Society

• Musk is challenged for his provocative comments and social media posts about Europe and the UK—particularly claims about inevitable civil war, “unsafe cities,” and support for far-right parties.
• He insists he’s supporting “normal people” and common-sense policies of secure borders, safe cities, and sensible spending. (61:19, 61:56)
• On immigration:

  “If you have a large and growing... group of people whose beliefs are antithetical to Western beliefs, at some point there will be a reckoning. They will try to implement their views and those who oppose it will oppose it. And that's what you call civil war.” (62:57)

• He defends himself from accusations of racism:

  “I would say I'm not racist... if you look at the people that are employed at my companies, we have senior executives of all races. I don't think there's any racism there.” (67:14–67:45)

Debate Over European Integration and Media Bias

• Musk and Beddoes spar over statistics, lived experience, and the media. Musk accuses the media—and particularly The Economist—of ignoring reality and losing public trust.
• On his motivations:

  “I hope I am having a big impact.” (69:29) “Some people do loathe me... I don't care... a lot more people actually like me than don't.” (70:03)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Future & Abundance

• “There really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans, apart from being human.” (03:12 – Elon Musk)
• “The most likely outcome is an age of amazing abundance, where anyone can have anything they can think of.” (03:53 – Elon Musk)

AI Governance & Risk

• “Money won’t matter in 2036.” (06:38 – Elon Musk)
• “I think my philosophy at this point, because, I mean, honestly, there seems to be just an inexorable progress here in, in AI and, and in Robots that even if I wanted to stop it, and I don't, I couldn't.” (10:45 – Elon Musk)
• “You can't beat them. Join them.” (13:24 – Elon Musk)
• “Probably the most important thing for AI safety is to be maximally truth seeking and curious.” (07:28 – Elon Musk)

Society & Politics

• “I do think it's going to be a bumpy road because AI will be able to do any job better than any person can do that job.” (28:40 – Elon Musk)
• “Work is going to be optional.” (30:18 – Elon Musk)
• “Deflation will be the issue, not inflation, because as the output of goods and services increases, if the output... increases faster than the money supply, you will have deflation.” (34:43 – Elon Musk)

Power & Public Perception

• “Literally, we just asked to have the contact information of the recipient or some evidence that, say, money was going to its intended purpose. But over and over we were told we need to wire money for some sort of important cause in Africa… But Zero died because of [Doge cuts].” (54:33–59:23 – Elon Musk)
• “I think a lot more people hate you and the media more than you realize... So the shoe is on the other foot. They hate you. They hate you far more than they hate me.” (70:03–70:48 – Elon Musk to Zanny Minton Beddoes)

Europe & Tribalism

• “If you have a large and growing group of people whose beliefs are antithetical to Western beliefs, at some point there will be a reckoning... that's what you call civil war.” (62:57 – Elon Musk)
• “I literally have stated my position, which is that... there need to be secure borders, that if there's an influx of immigrants, they need to be people who will agree with western ideals.” (79:24 – Elon Musk)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:02–04:33]: Musk predicts super-abundant future through AI & robotics
• [06:38–07:13]: “Money won’t matter,” economic model transformation
• [08:18–09:03]: Humans likely not in control of superintelligent AI
• [13:59–16:03]: Proposal for peer AI model testing, challenges around trust/competition
• [17:27–21:13]: Geopolitics—China’s AI progress and structural constraints
• [28:40–31:20]: Rapid job displacement, future of work as a hobby
• [31:51–34:43]: Universal high income, economic deflation predicted
• [45:31–46:30]: Succession planning at Tesla & SpaceX
• [50:03–54:00]: Starlink’s role in Ukraine, Musk's feelings about strategic power
• [54:33–59:23]: US politics, “Doge” program cuts, aid to Africa debate
• [61:11–62:13]: Musk’s views on the “far right” and migration in Europe
• [62:57–64:34]: Heated exchange over Musk’s UK comments, social media influence
• [69:03–71:22]: Media criticism and Musk’s popularity vs. journalists
• [79:24–80:29]: Musk on being misunderstood, claims of centrism

---

Tone and Final Remarks

The interview is far-ranging, frank, and frequently adversarial—especially around European politics, immigration, and media trust. Musk alternates between grand optimism about AI-driven abundance and unapologetic provocateur, defending controversial statements and positions. Beddoes brings pointed skepticism, keeping the conversation grounded in data and social consequence.

Closing Quotes:

• “I'm very good at predicting the future... my batting average is very high for a human. But this does have somewhat of a Cassandra effect where people don't believe that what I'm saying is likely to be true.” (80:29 – Elon Musk)
• “The AI robotics revolution will happen sooner... the AI robot singularity is 10 years away.” (82:25 – Elon Musk)

Last exchange:

• “No, you're welcome. I'm not boring.” (83:00 – Elon Musk)
• “You're definitely not boring.” (83:02 – Zanny Minton Beddoes)

---

Summary Table of Key Topics

| Segment | Highlights | Notable Quote | |---------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------| | Vision for AI & Abundance | AI > all humans; robots do most work; money fades | “Money won’t matter in 2036.” (06:38) | | AI Risk & Safety | 10–20% ‘doom’ chance; coordination among AI companies | “I think my philosophy… inexorable progress…” | | Geopolitics & AI Race | China could outplay West if given compute; need for cooperation| “China has far more electricity…” (18:12) | | Jobs & Society | Work becomes hobby; universal “high income”; deflation | “Work is going to be optional.” (30:18) | | Power, Politics & Criticism | AI orgs’ rivalry; control justified for long-term bets | “Set aside our personal differences for the good of the world.” (27:05) | | Europe, Social Issues & Media | Contentious debate over immigration, security, media trust | “You’re just literally making it up.” (73:11) | | Succession/Legacy | Succession plans exist, key value is long-term vision | “What Apple's missing are the breakthrough products.” (46:30) |

---

This summary was created to capture the essence, flow, and memorable moments of the episode, providing context and substance for listeners and non-listeners alike.

Transcript

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

Today's markets move fast. Get the insights you need in 10 minutes with the Barclays Brief, a new podcast from Barclays Investment Bank. Through sharp dialogue and scenario based analysis, our leading experts analyze key market themes each week. So whether you're managing a portfolio or leading a business, the Barclays Brief podcast can help you make smarter decisions today. Stay sharp, Stay brief. Find Barclays Brief wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sponsor Representative]

This intelligence podcast is sponsored by Back Market, the leading global marketplace for refurbished tech. When the kids need phones, laptops or tablets for school, buying refurbished tech makes sense for families trying to save money without sacrificing quality. At Backmarket tech costs up to 50% less compared to new. All devices have been professionally refurbished and come with a 1 year warranty and 30 day return policy. Start saving money. Visit backmarket.com or the back Market app to shop now.

[Elon Musk]

The economist.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Hi, I'm Zany Minton Beddoes, editor in Chief of the Economist and host of the Insider. It's a weekly video show for subscribers that you can watch on the Economist app or online. Today, we're bringing the Insider to our podcast listeners. I want to give you the chance to hear some of the interviews I've been doing with the people shaping our world.

[Elon Musk]

Hello.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Okay, we're looking at you.

[Elon Musk]

Hello.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I saw Elon Musk a few months ago at an event in California and I asked him if he'd like to come onto the Insider. He said I should get in touch with him after the SpaceX IPO. And so I did DMing him on X, his social media platform, and a few weeks later I found myself in a Tesla factory in Texas.

[Elon Musk]

That's a little too close, obviously.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You what? It's too close for me. Put it where everything is.

[Elon Musk]

I'm just playing the floor.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Put it wherever you want. It's got. We've got a little bit of a conversation.

[Elon Musk]

I'm very good at playing the pool, actually.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Yeah, not at all.

[Elon Musk]

Don't want to brag or anything.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Our conversation lasted more than 90 minutes. It was fascinating, fraught, and at times heated. It's something that I thought you, our readers, watchers and listeners should hear firsthand and in full. So with apologies for the length, here it is. Elon Musk, thank you so much for joining me on cider. Thank you for having us. Here at Tesla Giga, it is really hard to introduce you without using superlatives. I mean, you are doing, I think, more to build the future than literally anybody alive right now.

[Elon Musk]

I'm doing a lot of building in General, you're doing a lot of building. Instinctive builder. I suppose. I just like building things.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You are, but you're building, you know,

[Elon Musk]

run around building things all day long.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You run around building a lot of things. You pioneered electric vehicles, you revolutionized space travel. You've got a cutting edge AI model now, humanoid robots. Can we start this conversation by you putting all of this together?

[Elon Musk]

Yeah.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Tell me what the world's going to be like in, let's say, 10 years if you succeed.

[Elon Musk]

10 years. So we're talking 2036.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Yeah. Hopefully we'll both be around.

[Elon Musk]

Hopefully, yes. We can, we can. Probably, most likely we will be. It's hard to imagine the future that where there's not an overwhelming amount of artificial intelligence. Meaning like in 10 years I would expect artificial intelligence to be far greater than the sum of human intelligence. Like far greater. In fact, I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in around five years. In five years, roughly five years is my guess. There really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans, apart from

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

being human, perhaps in a more prosaic level. What will life be like?

[Elon Musk]

The most likely outcome is an age of amazing abundance, where anyone can have anything they can think of. This may sound preposterous, but, well, here we are in 2026. Let's see where we stand in 2036. Now, of course there are things that could derail this, like a massive global thermonuclear war or something like that, but assuming that there's not World War 3, I think we're headed for an age of amazing abundance. So this is, I guess, a message of, of optimism and excitement about the future.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So we'll talk about the abundance in a second. But just a very prosaic matter. How are your companies going to be making money? Because when you, in the SpaceX IPO perspectives it, it looked as though the overwhelming amount of the revenue would be coming from AI, from Grok, really. It won't be transporting things to space as Space X is now doing. What will your companies be doing in 10 years and how will they make money?

[Elon Musk]

Well, you can really think of the economy as digital and physical intelligence. So what we have right now advancing very rapidly is digital intelligence. Obviously with AI, that is, it seems that almost with every passing week there are more AI breakthroughs. It can do something amazing that it couldn't do before. But it's still somewhat confined to the digital realm. It doesn't have end effectors. You need the end effectors in the form of humanoid robotics. Basically lots of bots. In a nutshell, you need lots of bots. And then you can go from intelligence manifesting itself only digitally to shaping atoms. And you say, what, what is an economy? An economy is the production of goods and provision of services. And if you have vast numbers of robots with vast amounts of digital intelligence, you have a sort of a quasi infinite economy. The future is going to be very, very different from the past. There's no analogy or metaphor that I think illustrates the magnitude of change that we're going to experience here.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I understand that, and I'm also trying to kind of figure out what that world will look like. But in some way you could.

[Elon Musk]

It's going to be pretty incredible.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Yeah, well, we'll also do. There are some risks. There's risks. I agree on how then you make money, because in the end people are buying your shares because they expect money.

[Elon Musk]

I'll make another prediction. Money won't matter in 2036.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I'm not sure that the people who bought your shares think that money won't matter in 2036.

[Elon Musk]

What do you want money for? You want money for goods and services, right? You want money for obviously food, housing, transport, entertainment. Well, if that is so abundant that there's more, that the robots and AI are providing more goods and services than any human could possibly consume, what do you need money for in that case?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But you're creating these robots every now

[Elon Musk]

and then you'll need money. Sure.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Are you selling these robots? Are you selling humanoid robots? Or are you producing goods and services with the humanoid robots that you control? I can even levi straps.

[Elon Musk]

I think I would probably be. It would be an exercise in vanity for me to think that I would be controlling super genius AI that is vastly smarter than me. I think what we can and should try to do is to make sure that the AI has good values, that it cares about humanity and that wants us to be happy and prosperity. I think it probably will be. What my biological neural net tells me is that the most important thing for AI safety is to be maximally truth seeking and curious. If that's the case, I think it will foster humanity.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So let's unpack that. You're sure that humans will no longer be in control in 10 years time?

[Elon Musk]

I think it is unlikely. In the same way that if the difference InTELLIGENCE between AI and humans is vastly greater than the difference in intelligence between AI and chimpanzees, it's hard to imagine that the chimpanzees would be in charge.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I'm really surprised.

[Elon Musk]

And we are essentially an evolved form of chimpanzee. So it wasn't that long ago that we're swinging through the trees, eating bananas in the jungle. And we still eat bananas, by the way. We do, we do. And still, you know, bananas sometimes swing

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

through trees as well.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, it's true. Sometimes swing through trees. It's kind of fun. It's sort of reminiscent of the past. For all time's sake, swinging through the trees once in a while, probably, you know, there should be more swinging through trees.

[Sponsor Representative]

I bet.

[Elon Musk]

It's way more fun than people think.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I'm with you on that. I'm definitely with you on swinging through trees. I love swinging through trees. But I'm really struck listening to you say this now because I've been listening to a bunch of things that you've said over the years. And 10 years ago you were on a podcast, I think it was, with Neil Degrasse Tyson, and you said that the thing that terrified you most was rapid recursive self improvement in AIs.

[Elon Musk]

Yes.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And that you said. And it really struck with me, you said that we will just be the pet Labradors at the best.

[Elon Musk]

Well, now, you see, Labrador is pretty happy creatures. That's my.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But in 2023, you, you caught, you asked for a slowdown in air because you were worried about it.

[Elon Musk]

Well, I signed on to, you know, as one of many, like 500 people, I was just, you know, one of many signet signatures on that thing.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But, but I think even last year you said, what was it? Ted Cruz's podcast, you said there was a 10 to 20% chance of killer robots wiping out humanity.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So you sounded worried then. Now you seem very relaxed about it. Have you changed your view?

[Elon Musk]

I still think there's risk associated with AI and robots. It's not zero. I guess I've come to my sort of philosophical conclusion is to look on the bright side. I can't see any way to really stop this incredible momentum of AI and robots. And at times I sort of think, well, perhaps even if there was a stop button, we probably shouldn't press it because the most likely outcome is incredible abundance for all.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

That's what I thought. Actually. It struck me that now you seem to have decided it's inevitable. Let's hope for the best and go for the ride.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, I mean, yes, pretty much. Let's enjoy the ride. I think my philosophy at this point, because, I mean, honestly, there seems to be just an inexorable progress here in, in AI and, and in Robots that even if I wanted to stop it, and I don't, I couldn't.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Do you think there's still a 10 to 20% chance that killer robots mean the end of humanity? That's a high p doom, as they say.

[Elon Musk]

Well, in the long run we're all dead, of course, you know, so I mean, according to the standard model of physics, the end of the universe is a long, boring, sort of thin gray soup of gradual cooling, meaning that sort of the heat death of the universe is called. So if the heat death of the universe is in fact the outcome for our reality, then it really is all about the journey because the destination is terrible.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

10 years is not very. Yeah, I get that. But that could be a long way ahead.

[Elon Musk]

Very long way.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

If it's 10 to 20% in 10 years, would you go into one of your rockets if you thought there was a 10 to 20% chance of it blowing up and killing you?

[Elon Musk]

Yes, but let's say you can't do anything about it. I guess the only thing we can try to do is minimize the probability of the bad outcome. But trying to stop the intelligence in robots, I mean, for the longest time I declined to participate in AI or was created OpenAI as essentially a counterweight to Google because at the time it had more or less a monopoly on AI. And then anthropic spun out of OpenAI and if anything, it seems like my actions have really accelerated AI. You know, I wasn't really aiming to accelerate AI, but in creating OpenAI and then having anthropic spin out of that, and now currently Anthropic's leader in AI, these actions have actually resulted in knock on effects that accelerated AI, which wasn't really my intention. So it just seems like all roads lead to acceleration of AI. So then I'm like, okay, well you can just sort of be sad about it or join the club, I suppose.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Well, you've certainly joined the club. Yeah, you've definitely joined the club, but

[Elon Musk]

you can't beat them. Join them.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You know, you've clearly done that and very successfully. But what about trying to minimize the risks? And you know, a number of the other leaders of model makers have been pushing for different ways to try and minimize the risks. You know, just last week Demis Hassabis came out with a proposal for a private public regulator. You said it was a good starting point for discussions, I think. Do you think you guys should be working more actively to get something in place to control the risks, or do you think that's impossible too?

[Elon Musk]

My recommendation to Demis, because I talked to him for a few hours before he published his piece, was that the most immediate thing that we could do is to have the leading AI companies at least just meet. We'll have some sort of call once every few weeks and just discuss any safety and security issues. And that before a breakthrough, sort of a new frontier model is released, something that sort of is far more intelligent than anything that already exists, that there's an opportunity for the various competing AI companies to test that model for any harmful effects and to be able to recommend pausing to address some of these security issues. I think that's sort of the easy, quick thing that we can do, and it can evolve to more than that over time. But that's. That, I think, would be a smart move.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But why haven't you done that yet? I mean, there's like five of you, right? I mean, everyone knows the first name. Dario Demis, Sam. I mean, you don't all like each other very much. Yeah, but you're not. You're not all. I mean, you're also all competing, right? You all want to be first.

[Elon Musk]

Yes, but that's where I think the competitors can keep each other honest. So, meaning, like, if I think it's quite difficult for someone in the government who doesn't have a deep technical understanding and isn't driving the frontier of AI to know whether something should be released or not. However, the competitors, I think, can, you know, if given sort of a week or two to review, a new model can highlight issues and have an incentive to keep all the competitors, have an incentive to keep the others honest.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Do you have enough trust between you to do that? I mean, you don't much like each other. Wouldn't Sam Altman just think you're going to nick all his ideas if you did that?

[Elon Musk]

Well, we're just talking about. I think as little as a week is all that would be needed for private testing. It's not to hand over the AI, it's just to test it.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Have you proposed this?

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, just to test it via an API or something. I think that'd probably be a good thing to do.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Have you proposed it?

[Elon Musk]

I mean, you could recognize that to Demis, and I guess I'll talk to Daria about it, too. There's also, of course, some very competent Chinese AI companies that. Several that are very good. The new Kimi model.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Kimi K3. Yeah, the one that came out last week. I mean, it was almost as good as Fable, right?

[Elon Musk]

Well, I think, realistically, Fable is still clearly the Smartest model. I think anyone realistically would say that that's still the case. But the Chemi model is getting quite close to Fable. Now. Anthropic had Mythos, from which Fable is derived. I think they had that ready in February. So they've got whatever they call. I'm not sure what they'd call it, but Mythos 2 or Fable 6 or something, something much better than what they had in February. They almost certainly have not. Almost certainly. They certainly have right now. So. And I think they could. They. They could release it at any time.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Just before we get onto to releasing, how do you think about the Chinese models and the geopolitics of it? Are you worried about the Chinese catching up and getting ahead, given that the

[Elon Musk]

Chinese AI companies are. Are doing as well as they are with a relatively small amount of computer? It seems that if they had a lot of compute, there's a good chance that they would be the leaders. And at some point they probably will have a lot of compute.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Ergo, they will be the leaders.

[Elon Musk]

There's a good chance that they are the leaders at some point. You can think of the constraints on AI, essentially electricity and AI chips, and then for physical AI, the robots. China's also got some very good robot companies. In fact, they have these, like, robot sporting events. I don't know if you've seen some of them.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Yes, I have. I saw. The last time I was in Beijing, I saw the robots.

[Elon Musk]

Well, and then they have the sort of like a. Like a boxing match or fighting match with the robots, which is quite entertaining. And I saw some video robo that got his head knocked off, kept fighting even with his head knocked off. It looked pretty funny. But in fact, I think the robot battles are going to be quite entertaining to watch. So China is very strong on robots, very strong on digital AI. And if you look at electricity production, you say AI is a function of whatever the limiting factor is, if it's chips or electricity. China has far more electricity than the United States. In fact, China has more electricity than the United States, Europe and India combined already and is heading to. My guess is China gets to four times the electricity production of the US which is roughly proportionate to the population.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

What should the US government do about this? I mean, if. Presumably it is a little alarming if you have an authoritarian regime far ahead in the most powerful technology, and clearly what. What the US government's been trying to do is with the export controls and so forth, keep China back. Do you think they should ban the use of K3 Kimi K3 for example.

[Elon Musk]

Well, the US government can't. They can, they can pass some law that prevents U.S. companies from using Chinese models, but they can't stop the rest of the world from using them. So it's not like the US government has authority over China or the rest of the world.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Do you think they should stop US companies from using them? There's talk of that right now. Right.

[Elon Musk]

I don't think that helps. That won't stop China from being the leader in AI really. For digital intelligence, it comes down to how much AI compute do you have, how many chips do you have and how much power do you have, how much electricity do you have? The constraint right now I think is actually slightly more on power and cooling than it is on AI chips because the power demands of the AI chips are very, very high. We'll talk about water demands, but really the water usage of AI is negligible, almost nothing. But the electrical demand is very high.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

That's why you're thinking of orbital data centers, presumably.

[Elon Musk]

Yes. That's the constraint for any chips not being turned on in China is electricity. And like power and cooling and the electrical equipment and everything, the rate at which AI chips are being made exceeds the rate at which new electricity is coming online in China. Outside of China.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Outside China, I see, yeah.

[Elon Musk]

And since China, you know, the US has banned the export of the latest AI chips to China, China is somewhat chip starved.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So they are becoming much more efficient at using the chips that they have. And one of the striking things of Kimik 3. Right. Is how efficiently they.

[Elon Musk]

And China is also, I think, closer than most people realize to solving the lithography problem, which would enable them to make AI chips at very large volumes. So I think there's. This shouldn't devolve into just a China conversation, but. So the current constraint is electricity outside of China. In China, the constraint is chips. Once we address the, the power constraint with AI data centers in space, then the constraint will once again be chips outside of China.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

That suggests to me that you need China and the U.S. if you're going to have some overall safety constraints that they will need to work together if you are going to try. And I mean, you suggested, you know, the five

[Elon Musk]

probably it should include the Chinese companies that are doing frontier AI models too.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And do you think governments need to be involved?

[Elon Musk]

My recommendation would be that if some of the leading companies in AI say that a new model is very dangerous and that the company producing that model is not taking steps to address the danger, then they should alert the government to take action to to limit the release of that model. And that could be action by the Chinese government or action by the US Government. It's really just the US Government and the Chinese government that have the power to take action here.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I guess people would be worried about relying on a group of model builders to decide whether to do this. I mean, if you look at what the US Government has done with Mythos, they stepped in because they were worried about the cybersecurity risks and they stepped in using threat of export controls to prevent the widespread release of this model. I find it hard to see how governments will not want to keep that power, that they ultimately decide whether or not it gets released.

[Elon Musk]

I think they should have that power. But it wasn't as though someone in the government figured out that Matthos had some scary cybersecurity risks. It was Amazon. Amazon highlighted this and Amazon called the White House.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So you'd have a system where the model makers would check each other's work. If there was something that worried them, you'd tell the government. The government would then think if there's

[Elon Musk]

something else worrisome and that company was not doing anything to address that risk, then that would be the moment for government to step in and take action, which is literally what have to happen. Well, I think it'd be good to do that immediately. Really?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Yeah, yeah, that's what people keep telling me. We have to get this some kind of system in the next six months because of the pace at which the models are improving.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, six months is a long time.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So you think shorter than that?

[Elon Musk]

Well, I mean there's so many AI breakthrough announcements, sometimes multiple per day. I mean, how many were there last week? I lost track.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Yeah. So you basically, whether it's Demis proposal or others, you need to get together and get this set up. Kind of now it sounds like you're telling me.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah. I would recommend that we at least have some sort of informal weekly or bi weekly call and that this may be a week or two weeks of early access by competitors. And this is why I think the incentives work is because competing companies, I think are likely to understand if something is a security risk and they're not going to be shy about highlighting that their competitors models should be delayed in release. I think the incentive structure does work quite well there. This is how it works with the Motion Picture Association. The it's an industry group that decides how movies should be rated whether it's appropriate for young children or not. And that seems to have worked quite well. And then you really just ask the government to intervene if a company is doing something very dangerous and refuses to take action to reduce the danger.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Do you think this is a tricky one, but you guys don't much like each other and you don't much trust each other. You're insulting each other on social media constantly. So do you think you can do that with people that you dislike where there seems to be such kind of personal vitriol between some of these leaders?

[Elon Musk]

Yes. Well, I'm not a fan of Sam album because if you started a nonprofit that was meant to be an open source AI company owned by the world and it somehow got turned into an $800 billion for profit company with closed source, I think you'd be like, well, wait a second. That's the exact opposite of what I donated the money for. That's my issue. I think it's a legitimate one. And then Dario, I think, also is not a fan of Sam Altman because he felt, in fact, the reason the anthropic team left OpenAI is because they didn't trust Sam Altman. Otherwise Anthropic wouldn't exist. They would still be at OpenAI. I think Dario is a very principled person. He cares about things a lot, cares about the future of the world. And I think everyone I've met at Anthropic so far has been like, no one set off my evil detector. They always seem like they're well intentioned. The road to hell is, I think, mostly paved with bad intentions. There are a few well intentioned paving stones in there, so we, we don't be complacent. But at the end of the day, if we have to talk, we'll talk. I mean, set aside our personal differences for the good of the world. Well, that's.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

That's a very good thing for the rest of us to hear.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Can we turn to one other risk that people worry about, particularly, I think, ordinary Americans, where, you know, AI has become incredibly unpopular. 75% of people are worried about it, and I think they worry about their jobs. And if you look at Dario has said, famously, what, 50% of entry level jobs, entry level white collar jobs will be gone within a few years. You're building humanoid robots.

[Elon Musk]

Yes. You also said, like, I mean, Dario did dig his own grave here regarding Mythos, because he said, you know, Mythos is like super scary, terrifying. And also, by the way, we're going to release it. And then he's like, what do you mean? You know, so I think he. I think probably in the future we'll choose his words differently.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But what's.

[Elon Musk]

Because obviously, if you terrify everyone and then say, oh, we're releasing this terrifying thing, people will obviously be alarmed about that. You know, you've literally told them to be scared, and then you release the scary thing. And so they will be scared. That is natural.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So I certainly don't want you to alarm people, but I do think there is a really important debate about how quickly and to what degree AIs displace people from jobs. Because it is, as you say, if we're 10 years, it's more. It's. There's more intelligence, artificial intelligence, than any human intelligence.

[Elon Musk]

Yes.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And if you are, and I think you're ahead of everyone, at least in this country, on powering humanoid robots, that's also going to be kind of factory work. So are you part. Are you closer to Dario, let's say, in your sense of the pace at which jobs are going to be displaced?

[Elon Musk]

I do think it's going to be a bumpy road because AI will be able to do any job better than any person can do that job. And that will be true very quickly of jobs that are digital or really anything that involves a person at a computer or on a phone, AI will be able to do all of that very soon. For software engineering, we already have a situation where AI is better than at least 90% of professional software engineers at writing software. And it really is getting to the point where it'll be better than 99% and then it'll get to the point where there's just no way to compete. It'll get to what I call Stockfish level. So Stockfish. Stockfish is the chess program that. Stockfish is so good at chess that, you know, it will easily beat Magnus Carlsen or anyone at Chess on it. Even running on a small computer, I suspect that you could probably run Stockfish on your phone and beat Magnus Carlsen. That's how good it is at Chess, and that's how good AI will be

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

at writing software and beyond software beyond.

[Elon Musk]

And that applies to everything. Everything, everything, everything, everything.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But what about you? For physical jobs, for assembly jobs, you will also need the capability in humanoid robots, which so far isn't there yet, is it?

[Elon Musk]

Right. So that's why I said digital AI and then physically manifested AI in the form of robots, where the robot is, is more or less an end effector. It would have some amount of local intelligence, but be managed by a large AI model. And I've said many times, I think work is going to Be optional. So, so, so I think maybe, maybe a good, a good comparison would be gardening. Like you don't have to garden, you know, you don't, like, you don't have to grow vegetables in your garden. You can go to the store and they're going to be pristine vegetables. Or you could grow vegetables in your garden and they will actually be less perfect. Your tomatoes are not going to be as plump and juicy as the ones at the store. They'll, you know, look a little artisanal. But you know, if you go to a friend's house and they, they make dinner with vegetables from their garden, it's a nice touch. So that's what work is going to be like.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I get that. I mean, in that world I would be hopeless because I can't garden, save my life. But I get the idea people still like playing chess with each other, even though they do. Every computer is better. But let's just, let's just think about the politics of this. Yeah, because it sounds to. You're describing a world where within 10 years, pretty much every job can be done better by an intelligence. And yes, you're seeing huge returns to this intelligence. Two people like you, you're the wealthiest man in the world. People who lose their jobs, who are displaced, who may go off and garden. But how are they going to live? And what kind of, I mean, it

[Elon Musk]

sounds to me universal high income.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But how are you going to get there? Let's talk about the politics of this because right now we, if we look at the political pressures in most countries, people are very, very worried about this. Very against. Seems to me that there's a risk that we are heading more for revolution than for an easy route to this nirvana you're playing out.

[Elon Musk]

I mean, it will be a bumpy road. I'm not suggesting it will be that everything will be smooth sailing here. I mean, there are many jobs that used to exist that don't exist because of computers. I mean, the word computer used to refer to a person doing computations like that used to be a job description of a person. And you can see pictures online of buildings that have entire skyscrapers just filled with people doing calculations to do things like calculate the interest on your bank balance. This is how things were done for a long time until computers came around. And even in the beginning, computers were very expensive and hard to use. So the thing that's different here is that the pace of change is radically accelerated. But still people, some people were upset that their job of calculating bank interest would no longer be available. But now I think you'd be hard pressed to find people who want to do that job. So I think I have a suggestion for say, what say, science fiction books people might want to read to get a sense of what the future will be like. And the best envisioning of an AI future that I've read are the books by Ian Banks, the culture books.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I'm just reading accession, so thanks to you I've started reading these. But I actually don't find that future a terribly appealing one because I don't think humans have agency in that future.

[Elon Musk]

They have agency minimal compared to their small way.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But the irony, I mean, Ian Banks, as you know, was a socialist. Iain Banks had a very different political philosophy.

[Elon Musk]

I not sure that's, I'm not sure I would entirely agree with that.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Let's agree that that could be where we end up. I'm concerned about the road and we live, you know, we live in democracies and people are very worried about this. So I guess two questions. Firstly, do you have to have massive redistribution from people like you to the people who are losing their jobs? Do you need to have, do you need to pay more tax? Do you have much higher taxes on capital so that you fund some kind of universal income? Otherwise what do people live off?

[Elon Musk]

I think that the treasury should just simply issue people checks.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But where's the revenue coming from? I mean, I'm enough of an economist. If you just issue checks, you'll have inflation.

[Elon Musk]

A lot of what we're trying to think about is these things were relevant in the past, they will not be relevant in the future. So like inflation is simply the ratio of money to goods and services. So if the goods and services output increases dramatically, if it increases, you know, 1,000%, you can increase the, you can literally print or these guys change the database. Never print money. You create money in the database, provided the creation of that money is less than the rate at which goods and services increase. You actually have deflation. So I'll make a prediction which is that deflation will be the issue, not inflation, because as the output of goods and services increases, if the output of goods and services increases faster than the money supply, you will have deflation.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I'm actually, I'm perfectly willing to believe that you may well be right. Absolutely, you may well be right. But I'm really hung up on how we get from the current polarized, angry, fearful policy we have now to this nirvana. And I think you could, you can paint a picture where people are so scared by this, you know, they essentially try to stop it, maybe they can't. But you get nationalized, there's a kind of, you know, far left government, there's exorbitant tax increases. The kind of economy crumbles because people are so worried about a future. Which does sound quite scary, as you describe it. How do you, how do you handle the politics now?

[Elon Musk]

It's exhilarating and terrifying.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But if you were in the. Yeah, exactly.

[Elon Musk]

Honestly, if you ask me, on any given day, in fact, even intraday, I've gone from exhilaration to terror regarding AI. So I want to be clear. I'm not sort of some, you know, I'm not trying to be sort of candide here and just be some, oh, everything's wonderful. Some Panglossian view of the world where everything's, you know, going to be great, no risk. I'm saying there is some risk.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I think we agree on that. I guess I'm trying to be more small bore and practical and think about what can be done now to limit those risks. And you gave a very strong argument for what you and your fellow model makers could do.

[Elon Musk]

What should government probably would be good for us to coordinate and just highlight issues that we see in each other's models to mitigate downside risk.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Should the government, should you be paying more tax to fund more transfer programs?

[Elon Musk]

Well, first of all, I do pay a lot of tax. So in fact, I set a record for the most amount of taxes ever paid by, by a human.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

That's also because you're the world's richest man.

[Elon Musk]

Well, even before that. So my guess is that I will pay many trillions in tax and I'm fine with that. That's just the way it's going to be. But I don't think in a future where money is relevant, I think taxation also becomes somewhat irrelevant.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And what about giving people a sense that they have a share in the upside?

[Elon Musk]

Sure.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Giving people shares in Space X, Tesla. Do you think that's. And there's a lot of talk about this right now.

[Elon Musk]

Well, one of the reasons I took Space X public is so that the public could participate in, they could own a piece of Space X. Whereas as a private company, we're very limited in the number of shareholders we're allowed to have before going public. So as a public company we can have millions of shareholders. As a private company, we're limited to just a few thousand shareholders.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Do you think there should be distribution of shares like, you know, the Alaska Wealth Fund is there for which could you imagine a world and Some people talk about the Trump accounts being a kind of vehicle for this that you share of your equity goes to ordinary Americans.

[Elon Musk]

Right? Well, in the taxes that I pay, I mean I'll, you know, so for my stock options I pay 40% income tax on a national basis. And then because I spend, I don't know, about 30% of my time in California thereabouts, I pay another sort of roughly a third of the California state taxes, which is, are now around 15%. So I pay about 45% in taxes. Just so people know this. I don't know. It's quite roughly half. Then when I die, there'll be another 45%, roughly half that will be taxed. So at the end of the day it probably I'll have a quarter of what I, whatever I have. But I think the only thing it gives me is that for some period of time I would have control of the direction of the companies. So it's not, that's pretty much all it gets me. Until I guess the AI is so smart that it's is in charge and that point controlling companies won't really matter.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Well, let's talk about that because I think one of the other things that worries people about the direction we're heading in and I'm going to caricature it, but people think that the direction of the world is being shaped by a very small number of incredibly powerful people. And you are right at the top of that list.

[Elon Musk]

What else is. But is this different from the, from.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I agree with you. I think, I think it was like

[Elon Musk]

that when, when wasn't that the case?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

It was ever thus, but it was ever thus. It is a. As you've described very vividly, it's an incredibly rapid change. And so let's start with control of your company, which you definitely have now, the IPO. You basically you have 80% odd of voting shares and as I understand it, you can only be removed by a vote of shares which you yourself control. So tell me if I'm wrong, but I think, yeah, well, there's a lot

[Elon Musk]

of companies in that bucket by the way. The AI companies like Google's in that, in that bucket. Alphabet is controlled by Larry and Sergey.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But I think yours is more extreme.

[Elon Musk]

The inability to the same level of. They have voting control of that company. Mark Zuckerberg has control of the matter and you know, Mark is trying very hard on the AI front and I think probably will also have a leading AI. I think he released one last week. So I think he's, he's you'll be one of the meta, will be one of the AI companies.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Is it sensible for one person to have so much control over a company?

[Elon Musk]

Well, I really just need to make sure that I can focus on long term. By long term I just mean in the five to 10 years. So one of the challenges with being a public company is that the pressure to have great results every single quarter and to not really invest in things that may only pay off in five to 10 years. And in the case of SpaceX, I want to extend consciousness beyond Earth and have a growing civilization on the moon, Mars and elsewhere in the solar system. I think ultimately this would have a very high return on investment. But in the short term we'll be spending all this money on a moon base or, and a Mars base. And then people are like, I'm going to get all this pressure for like, well, you missed your earnings this quarter because you spent too much on Mars. I'm like, yes. By the way, that was in the S1 prospectus and it's literally listed as a thing we will do. But they still get grumpy about these things, you know, because they're like, well, you had whatever, you know, you said your gross margin would be this and it's actually slightly worse. And now, now we're going to punish you and the short sellers all descend upon you and you get a lot

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

of pressure, you're going to get a lot of that.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah. So I just need some way to sort of say like, listen guys, we're going to focus on 5 to 10 year or longer time horizon investments. This will depress our short term earnings. But the long, I mean if you take a long term view, and there are investors, we have many investors that do take a long term view. In fact, I'm a big fan of the retail investors. In fact, I find our retail investors on balance have the, they're very insightful and, and have very long term views. But if part of this comes, you say, what's the incentive structure for portfolio managers? It's sort of understandable why they put so much pressure on, on a, on quarterly earnings because their compensation and whether they get promoted or not is dependent on how their portfolio does. And they have, they only have a few years to make these decisions and then they're evaluated based on those decisions over the course of sometimes only a year or less. And so since they're under pressure to have immediate returns, they then put companies under pressure to have immediate returns. So once you understand the incentive structure, the behavior naturally follows

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

losing weight can feel like a rollercoaster full of ups, downs and being thrown for loops. Like when someone brings donuts into the office or your kids. Dino nuggets start giving you that look again. That's why there's NOOM. They combine GLP1s to quiet the food noise with healthy habits that help you keep it quiet even if you get off the meds. Their program is designed to make weight loss a smooth ride, helping you understand what drives you so you can build better habits to not just lose weight, but keep it off. Lose for keeps. Get [e-mail] not all customers will clinically qualify for medications. Individual results may vary.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system.

[Sponsor Representative]

Running a business means you're always reachable. Until you're not. And the moment you miss that call, a competitor picks it up. That's why this episode is brought to you by Quo spelled Q U O the business phone system built so you never miss an opportunity. All your calls, texts and voicemails live in one place. Anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history and respond fast. Quo is the number one rated business phone system on G2, trusted by over 90,000 businesses set up in minutes on any device. Keep your existing number, add teammates as you grow. No it. No hassle. Quo's built in AI agent even handles after hours calls and books appointments so you're covered around the clock. Money is on the line. Always Say hello with Quo. Try Quo Free plus 20% off your first six [e-mail] tech. That's Quo.com tech.

[Elon Musk]

Close.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

What about the key man risk? I mean what happens, you know, heaven forbid, but what happens if you get run over by the proverbial bus to tomorrow? You know, it is you. You have total control over these companies. Do you have a plan for how they would progress without you?

[Elon Musk]

I think they would actually do very well for, for several years. And you know, there's a clear roadmap for, or space map, I should say for SpaceX. And there's a roadmap actually for Tesla literally. So I think there's. If you look at Apple after Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs had, he had a strategic vision and a bunch of products that he had ideas for and Apple has done very well. But when you don't have a creative genius like Steve Jobs, what you miss? What Apple's missing are the incredible breakthrough products. So they make amazing phones, great computers, but Apple hasn't come up with a sort of Steve Jobs level breakthrough product.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So by analogy, that's what you bring to all of your companies. You mentioned Mars. Most people think of you as the man who wants to create a colony on Mars. So we have multiplanetary civilization.

[Elon Musk]

I've been saying that for such a long time.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You have, but now you seem more focused on AI and what AI will do in the next 10 years. And you sound much more excited about using the moon as a base from which to, you know, pop out orbital AI satellites. Have you shifted your attention away from Mars or are you as interested in colonizing Mars as you ever were?

[Elon Musk]

I'm interested in the set of actions that propagate consciousness into the future to the maximum degree possible so that the future light cone of consciousness is as big as we could. There's an exciting future where we're a space faring civilization out there among the stars and the great things that are envisioned in the non dystopian sci fi books and movies become real one day. I sort of want the Star Trek, you know, Star wars future. Star wars was the first movie I ever saw in a theater by the way.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Really?

[Elon Musk]

It's probably maybe had a profound effect on me. I suppose so. I remember I was. Blew my mind honestly. I think I was 6 years old and I was like this is the greatest thing I've ever seen.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Has your life been about making that happen?

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, I mean it's. I didn't think it would be, but when I was young. But my life feels somewhat surreal. I can't believe these things are actually happening. I think the world's makes me believe in simulation theory where it's like well this, the things I'm doing are so preposterous that it's hard to believe they're real. I mean we've got starship, which is the largest, most powerful flying object ever made and we intend to launch that more than once per hour.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I know, I read that. And we can, you know, people can quibble about how quickly it happens, but I think based on your track record we should assume it will happen at some point.

[Elon Musk]

It will happen.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I'm just sort of struck that when I am as blown away by this world as you are and I watch it from a much more naive level. But for me the whole evolution of AI and the capabilities of these models is in and of itself so mind

[Elon Musk]

blowing, it's pretty much happening as I thought it would.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Is it?

[Elon Musk]

Yeah.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Elon Musk]

And not just me. Many people predicted this. I think Ray Kurzweil's predictions have been remarkably accurate.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Yeah, the singularity approaching. Let's go back more immediately to the here and now. We've talked about concentration of control in your companies. You've made a very good case for why you should have it. You also have, through Starlink, incredible geopolitical power. I mean, I'm one of your customers, excellent product. But without them, the Ukrainians would have been in serious, serious trouble.

[Elon Musk]

Yes. The Ukrainian government has publicly thanked Starlink many times for being instrumental in defending Ukraine.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And you recently decided to prevent the Russians in the occupied territories from having access to Starlink.

[Elon Musk]

Well, no, we do. We were never at any point selling Starlink to Russians.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But they were grabbing it, right? They were using it. And you've now stopped them from doing that.

[Elon Musk]

Well, they essentially got Starlink units that they ordered through Ukraine and then smuggled them into Eastern Ukraine where the Russians are, and were then using them in some cases for attacks. Now, the. In order to address this, what, we worked with the Ukrainian government to create a white list of approved Starlink terminals. Now, this has some downsides because a whole bunch of people who were just innocent users of Starlink and just trying to access the Internet for work or for education now don't have Starlink.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

These are geopolitical decisions of consequence. How do you feel about having that power? You can determine the outcome of wars. How does that feel? And is it right that you should have that power?

[Elon Musk]

Well, I'm not sure we're determining the ultimate outcome of the, you know, say the war in Ukraine. You know, I think I do hope that there's some sort of peace agreement reached soon because for I think two or three years now, the border has barely moved and every day there are lots of people dying at the front line. And, and I think there's a lot of wishful thinking here of people saying, well, Russia should completely withdraw, etc. But this is not realistic. I really think there needs to be some, you know, a piece with that, that that is, that, you know, we have to be pragmatic about this. What I think would be terrible is if there's another three years of people dying senselessly at the front lines and you have to say, like, well, you know, how do you explain to the children of the men that are dying at the front lines, Russia on the Russian side too, by the way, they're being conscripted and sent there. I am quite offended by sort of fancy diplomats who have, you know, seven course dinners in luxurious places while people are dying at the front lines and who pontificate about how Russia should withdraw. But they're not going. Russia's not going to withdraw. So there really needs to be an accepted piece along those lines.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And do you think it's your responsibility to play a role in tipping the scales towards what you see as the right way to peace?

[Elon Musk]

I've been advocating peace for a long time. You know, I posted a few years ago that there really needs to be some concession here to Russia. This is not me being pro Russia. I'm just being pragmatic, or people will die for years with nothing achieved. And that is exactly what happened.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I don't know. I mean, the Ukrainian.

[Elon Musk]

Exactly what happened.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

The Ukrainians are doing pretty well right now at, you know, with that incredible drone capacity hitting inside Russia. And the kind of general consensus is that, you know, the balance of the war is shifting. But my point is not so much

[Elon Musk]

about Ukraine is not going to retake those territories. It is not going to happen.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

My interest is really on whether you think, given that you have, through Starlink, you have an incredible power, whether it's appropriate that you should wield it. That's quite rare that an individual actor has such power by turning on and off a capability to shape conflict.

[Elon Musk]

Well, is there something you think I should do differently?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I mean, I think you were right to support Ukraine. I think that, you know, it won't surprise you. I think that the Russian aggression was, you know, for many, many reasons, an appalling aggression. And I think that that was an important thing that you did.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, I mean, I did a very deep dive into the background of that conflict to understand exactly what was going on. And I'm reminded of the old adage that there are no angels in war.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

It's a similar tone, I think, about domestic politics, where you've, you know, you've. You've played a big role domestically, politically. Here, you spent a lot of money on Donald Trump's reelection. After the election, you got very actively involved. You know, through Doge, you tried to cut a lot of spending, reshape the government. How do you feel that it wasn't hugely successful in the sense that, you know, there wasn't nearly as much spending cut as you tried. How do you, as you look back on that, do you regret getting so involved in politics? Do you think it was a good thing to do?

[Elon Musk]

I think. I think I got a little too involved in politics, got carried away, frankly. So the, you know, the goal with the sort of Doge stuff was, was to try to do something about the. The deficit, which is massive, where the interest payments exceed the amount of Money spent on the Department of War. Basically, if you add up all the money spent on what is now the Department of War and intelligence in the US that is smaller than the interest payments on the debt. So we need to sort of take a close look at spending and make sure that money is being spent in sensible ways and that it is not wasted or spent on fraudulent activities. And I got a lot of flack from this for this, obviously. But people don't understand just how simple it was for the DOGE team to approve payments. Literally, we just asked to have the contact information of the recipient or some evidence that, say, money was going to its intended purpose. But over and over we were told we need to wire money for some sort of important cause in Africa. And we're like, okay, but the wiring instructions of. To Deloitte and touch in D.C. in Washington, D.C. not to Africa. So we would like to send the money to Africa. Can you please connect us with the recipients so we can send them the money directly? And then we'd get silenced.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

We don't need to relitigate doge. I have no doubt that there was. There's a lot of waste in the US Government.

[Elon Musk]

I think probably much worse than anyone could possibly imagine.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But the way. I mean, I think there is. It is a fair criticism that the way you shut down a whole bunch of programs probably, in fact, certainly caused unnecessary suffering. I mean, no, no, no. You don't buy that at all.

[Elon Musk]

It caused a lot of complaining.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So you don't buy the idea that anybody. To put it really crudely and simply, anybody. Kid in Africa died because of the suddenness with which zero. I just don't think that's right. I just don't think. I mean, I've had people reporting in Africa who.

[Elon Musk]

How many NGOs are there that could step in? Because bear in mind this, it happened quickly, and there are literally tens of thousands of NGOs.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Not everyone functions as fast as you do. If funding is cut off for antiretrovirals overnight and it just stops, then people will die when they don't have access to them. And it just.

[Elon Musk]

No, no. Only if they cannot get funding for that. But the gates foundation has $50 billion. What about that? What about any one of a number of organizations? What about the Mackenzie, whatever her last name is used to be. Bezos gave $50 billion. What about that?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But, you know, let's be practical. In many of these countries, USAID was the biggest funder. But I don't want to have a. It may also have been there, but it was the biggest funder of health care systems, so I'm very sure.

[Elon Musk]

Biggest funder of regime change.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And there may well be benefits from having changed.

[Elon Musk]

Also, US ID funding was not stopped. It was moved to the State Department.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

It was stopped. There were huge numbers of things shut down in Africa that were of this.

[Elon Musk]

These claims are false. They're nonsense and absolute nonsense. But obviously, when funding is stopped for fraudulent organizations or for something, do you think they're going to say, do you think they're going to say, well, please keep funding the fraud, or do you think they're going to come up with a sad story that sounds sympathetic in order to get the funding restored? Obviously, it will be the latter, and that's exactly what they did. But Zero died because of.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

That's what I would point Zero. I think you can. I actually have a lot of sympathy for the change of the aid regime that the US under the Trump administration has precipitated. However, I think the pace and the suddenness with which it happened will almost certainly have caused unnecessary suffering and deaths. And I think both of those conflicts.

[Elon Musk]

No, I think that's totally false.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Okay, well, let's.

[Elon Musk]

And obviously false because there are. The amount of funding we're talking about is far less than what can be done, than what can be supported by a private via foundation like the Gates foundation or Mackenzie Bezos Foundation. She's given away tens of billions of dollars. The Gates foundation has tens of billions of dollars. They are capable of acting very quickly. And if they didn't, I would say they're equally responsible.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I see. Okay.

[Elon Musk]

Obviously.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

All right, fair point.

[Elon Musk]

Zero people died because Doge.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I hear you loud and clear. 0 hear you loud and clear. Obviously, domestically, you stepped away from Doge. It was hard to do what you were trying to do. You just explained it. But this administration has gone in directions that I suspect you were not expecting two and a half years ago. You know, I'm not going to agree.

[Elon Musk]

Well, I'm not going to agree with everything any administration does.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Are you disappointed by this administration?

[Elon Musk]

No, I think this administration, on balance, is excellent. No administration is perfect, but it's vastly better than the alternative.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Can we talk about Europe, a place that you are very, very focused on.

[Elon Musk]

I'm not that focused on Europe.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I think, judging by your posts, you're pretty concerned about Europe. You support.

[Elon Musk]

I mean, once in a while I post something.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

It's reasonably frequently. It's not once in a while, but because I'm genuinely interested in this. As someone who lives in Europe Lives in London.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You paint a picture. Well, first of all, you support not just the populist right, but the far right, in fact, very fringe parties in some countries.

[Elon Musk]

No, I support the normal people. What do you call the far right

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

falsely, you think is the normal person?

[Elon Musk]

Okay, yes. Literally, you could go back 10 or 15 years and these policies were completely normal. In fact, one of the tricks that I think is funny, I think it's quite funny, is to take a speech from Obama and Hillary and then go to someone say, who's sort of on the. Sort of, what I call the lunatic left, and say, what do you think of the speech by Trump? Are like, oh, wow, he's the worst person ever. Actually, that was a speech by Obama. Or actually, that was a speech by Hillary.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Literally. No, I agree that the center of gravity in this country has shifted. Certainly the Democratic Party shifted to the left, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people like Rupert Lowe cringe.

[Elon Musk]

Right, Please. It's actually just normal people. It's just normal people. It's just normal people. And here are the principles. And tell me which of these sound terrible. That we should have secure borders, that we should have safe cities, that we should have sensible spending. Which of those three are far right fringe? And I would like to just admonish you and the media for the absurd characterization of the far right, which is false and misleading and nonsense. Please keep this part in.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

We'll keep all of this in. But let me. Let me.

[Elon Musk]

Don't cut this part.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Let me push back on that. Let me push back on that. Because you have nonsense, Elon, you have. What is it? Close to 250 million followers on X. Yeah. You say things like popular guy, quote, civil war in Britain is inevitable.

[Elon Musk]

Just a question on the current trend. Yes.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

When were you last in the uk?

[Elon Musk]

A few years ago.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Exactly. So. So I live there. I'm there the whole time. That is not.

[Elon Musk]

You live out of cloistered existence.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

No, I don't, actually. And the numbers also disprove what you say. What numbers? All the numbers about London is a much safer city than any city in the United States. Violent crime in the UK is not where you think it is. In fact, it's coming down. You. You have painted. And because you have so many followers, so many Americans believe it a kind of view that Europe and the UK are kind of, you know, overrun with terrifying Muslim immigrants, there's rape on every corner. There's a sort of civilizational destruction.

[Elon Musk]

I haven't said Any of those things, just not.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Well, you said civil war in Britain is inevitable.

[Elon Musk]

Yes, if current trends continue. It is.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Why?

[Elon Musk]

Well, if you have a large and growing, rapidly growing group of people whose beliefs are antithetical to Western beliefs, at some point there will be a reckoning. They will try to implement their views and those who oppose it will oppose it. And that's what you call civil war. And obviously this is the trend. And you absolutely do live in a cloistered existence. And if you'd like, we can go on a tour of Britain.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Sure, I'm very happy to come on a tour of Britain.

[Elon Musk]

And then. And you will see for yourself.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You can see my country that I live in all the time. And you haven't been to a few years ago.

[Elon Musk]

I've been there literally a hundred times.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But when was the last time it literally appears now. You know why this exercises me? Because you have really shaped opinion about the UK and so many Americans I come across and I have conversations with. And they'll be, and I just had one the other day along the order of, oh, London's such a dangerous place. How can you know? There are sort of grooming gangs everywhere. There are. There's violence everywhere. This is a picture that people get from things that you post or that are posted on X. And for example, you're posting for, what was it, 48 hours of citizen Vigilante, that film which, you know, paints a dystopian. I've watched it, yes. It was not fun. I watched it yesterday. It's not a very good movie, but it also paints a dystopian picture of Europe and it glorifies vigilante violence. It glorifies the murdering of a Muslim immigrant family. I honestly think that it is irresponsible for you to put that up on

[Elon Musk]

X. I think that it's a movie and it's worth watching.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You're clearly suggesting Europe is dystopian place. And you.

[Elon Musk]

Yes. I mean, why aren't you more. Doing more to fight censorship in Europe? Why aren't you doing. Seem to be doing nothing to fight censorship in Europe?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I think that there are.

[Elon Musk]

They put people in prison in the UK for social media posts. Do you think that's appropriate?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

No. And we've written editorials against it. But I don't think I.

[Elon Musk]

That's the sort of thing that I think is bad.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And I think if you. And I agree with you, but I don't think you. You have to glorify vigilante violence and kind of, you know, post the things that you are doing and paint an entirely inaccurate picture of Europe that you do.

[Elon Musk]

I don't think it is.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

We should do a tour of the uk.

[Elon Musk]

Yes, and one of Brussels, because the

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

UK has actually been very good at integrating immigrants. The UK is very effective at doing that. There are problems. I'm the first to admit that there are problems.

[Elon Musk]

Yes, there are major problems.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

There are problems, but it is not. It really is not what you are describing to or suggesting to your 240 million followers.

[Elon Musk]

I think it is.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And I think there's a problem.

[Elon Musk]

No, I think I'm. I think I'm spot on.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

We'll have to.

[Elon Musk]

And that's why you have freedom of speech, or at least, well, you don't

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

anymore in the UK to say things that are wrong. But your point is not that you're not just saying, I have every right to say what I want. You're saying, you know, I am right about Europe and I really don't think you are.

[Elon Musk]

I think I am.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I think you will find that most people in Europe, or many people in Europe don't think you're right about it. But let's come to that, because the

[Elon Musk]

media keeps ignoring what's. Ignoring reality.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I don't think that's true either. I really.

[Elon Musk]

And they're programmed by the TV and conventional media.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

And why are you. This is, I guess, even to me, sort of the bigger picture question. Why do you focus on this? Why are you interested in it? Because on the one hand, we started this conversation and you described to me this extraordinarily transformative, amazing. So, yeah, civilizational changing stuff that's happening in the next 10 years. And yet you're also, you know, an ongoing participant in the worst kind of tribalism, you know, cesspit of social media. Like, how does that fit? Are you, you know, on the one. There are two very different views of the world.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah. I don't think they're inconsistent.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But why do you do the latter one? The tribalism? I mean, people say that you're a racist. People say that you're, you know, there's all kinds of things said about you, which I'm sure you would disagree with, but I just don't understand what is the motivation for doing that? Are you fermenting?

[Elon Musk]

My partner is. She's half Indian and my. And I have four children with her. You know, one of them was named after a famous Indian physicist. So I would say I'm not racist. And also the, you know, if you look at the people that are employed at My companies, you know, we have senior executives of all races. I don't think there's any racism there.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Are you anti Muslim?

[Elon Musk]

I am. I'm against having. If people are coming to a country with antithetical views, I am against that. I'm against that. You know, I'm against. I'm against rape and murder. I'm against the imposition of rules and laws that are contrary to what we've come to accept in the West. And I think it's a crying shame that the sort of traditional media like you don't recognize this.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

First of all, I think that you hugely exaggerate the challenges that Europe faces. Secondly, in areas, I completely agree with you. I think that, you know, the constraints on freedom of speech in the UK in certain areas are problematic. What worries me is that the people you are supporting are really quite vile people in some areas, like some members of the AfD. Alice Weidel, whom I've met, is a perfectly thoughtful person, but in her party are some real neo Nazis are some really, really awful people. And your blanket support of this kind of party with 240 million followers means that you have a power in Europe that I think perhaps you don't realize the scale of impact you have, but

[Elon Musk]

you can, I hope I am having a big impact. But why?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Why should you? Why should you be able to shape European politics? You don't even live there.

[Elon Musk]

I think of it as sort of the west collectively.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But do you see why this makes people think that this man who has all this power, he's the world's richest man, he thinks he has a right to influence our politics. It makes people. It's why, you know, we started this conversation saying superlatives. It's why people loathe you. I mean, some people do loathe you.

[Elon Musk]

Yes, some people do.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But do you understand why? Do you think what you're doing is helpful for Western progress?

[Elon Musk]

Maybe some people do loathe me, and that's probably true. I don't care. But the fact that as you pointed out, a quarter billion people follow me is that I think a lot more people actually like me than don't. And I think a lot more people hate you and the media more than you realize. Do you realize the media is despised? Do you realize that journalists, the view of journalists is like a favorable view of journalists is like 15%.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I do know that in the United States, which means that.

[Elon Musk]

So the shoe is on the other foot. They hate you. They hate you far more than they hate me.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I think there is certainly A loss of trust in journalism. I think in part there have been mistakes by journalists and journalism. I totally acknowledge that. But I also think that the kind of polarized environment, particularly on social media, fostered by the kinds of things you are pushing on X, actually helps. This makes it worse.

[Elon Musk]

I don't think so. I think. I think you're the problem. The media. And speaking of loathing, you are loathed far more than I am and you don't seem to even realize that.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I think very few people know who I am relative to you. So I don't think I play in

[Elon Musk]

the same game, the media, collectively. So, I mean, you're hated. Do you even know that? You probably don't.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I like to think that I'm aware of my own personal shortcomings and the economist's shortcomings and our worldview shortcomings. But what we stand for, as you know, is liberal values, traditional classical liberal values, where we worry about concentrations of power and we believe in the individual and the dignity of the individual and individual freedom.

[Elon Musk]

I agree with that.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I firmly believe that. And I have long thought that you were a classical liberal. But when I read what you post. Classical liberal JS Mill, limited government, individual freedom.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, I agree with that.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But when I read what you post on your feed, I sometimes wonder whether you really do believe in that.

[Elon Musk]

I literally said, look, I believe in safe cities, secure borders and sensible spending with respect to government. That doesn't make me right wing at all in the least.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Does the US or do European countries score better on those?

[Elon Musk]

The US is better.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

No safe cities, much more dangerous in the US in the uk, sensible spending, bigger deficit here, out of control. You managed, you've, you've, you failed to reduce it. Secure borders now under the Trump administration. I agree with you before, not. But on two out of three, unequivocally, Europe is in a better place. Yet you seem to paint the picture of Europe being a hellhole.

[Elon Musk]

I don't think Europe's a hellhole.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Okay, we can agree on something.

[Elon Musk]

When did I ever say that?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Well, the picture you paint of.

[Elon Musk]

You're making up things.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

No, I'm not.

[Elon Musk]

You're just literally making it up.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Civil war in Britain is inevitable. And then you basically proselytize for this citizen vigilante film, which really does paint Europe as a hellhole. It just starts with ominous music and it says Europe.

[Elon Musk]

Well, there are, there was out of control rape and murder.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

It's more dangerous in this country than it is in Europe,

[Elon Musk]

where there is danger. In this country is because we fail to incarcerate repeat violent offenders. And that's, you know, the classic sort of Soros da or judges that fail to incarcerate repeat violence offenders. And if somebody gets arrested 50 times, literally for violent crimes and eventually they're going to kill somebody, so you either incarcerate them or. Or people will die.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I think the prevalence of guns has quite a lot to do with it, too. I mean, this is a much more dangerous country. Murder rates are much higher in large part because there's so much. There are so many guns.

[Elon Musk]

Well, let me give you an interesting number. There are more people that die in Europe from heat deaths than people that die from gun deaths in America. Why aren't you writing an article about air conditioning?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

We've done several on air conditioning and we had on our cover last week a whole long piece about, you know, why.

[Elon Musk]

Pro air conditioning.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Yeah, we're very pro air conditioning.

[Elon Musk]

Okay, good. Well, good.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Very pro. You should read us.

[Sponsor Representative]

Absolutely.

[Elon Musk]

Credit's where it's due.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I think you have a view of the Economist that is not entirely accurate. So you come look at England, start reading the Economist, and I will, you know, stand corrected on my criticism of you in this area.

[Elon Musk]

There are many parts of Britain and Europe which are not safe. You can't just walk around.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But there are far more in this country. Far more.

[Elon Musk]

No, I don't think so.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

All right, let's go and get my fact checkers to check that.

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, I don't think that's true.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Let's move on from this because I think I've got a sense of why you're doing what you're doing.

[Elon Musk]

The point is not that. The question is not is America perfect? The question is, does Europe have a serious and growing problem? Absolutely, it has a serious and growing problem.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

That's where we started.

[Elon Musk]

This Europe has a serious and growing problem. I'm not going to say that the United States has no problems. Of course it does. But, you know, we should all try to address these issues.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

We can agree on that. We should all try to address the problems. My point was simply that I think you exaggerate the scale of Europe's problem

[Elon Musk]

and that I think people are asleep at the switch and do not realize the magnitude of the issue.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I also think that your interventions, however well intentioned they, may be risk making Europe's problem a lot worse.

[Elon Musk]

How?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Because you are putting your support behind people who are proto authoritarians, who are not trying simply to, you know, make sure there is better integration of Muslims or to secure the borders, but who have very clear fascist tendencies. And you will cause you're just completely

[Elon Musk]

making sense within Europe. I think what you're saying is total fiction. And really I'm simply saying that there needs to be. There needs to that Europe has to have secure borders. We should not let in vast numbers of people who with views that are antithetical to the accepted views in Europe and where there will not be some level of safe cultural integration. This is simply common sense.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

If all you are saying is Europe should have secure borders, I completely agree with you. Then I have misunderstood what your interventions have been on social media because that is not what the view I have not what I would conclude having seen what the people you are supporting and the things you are doing. But if that's your goal, I share your goal that Europe should have secure borders. Yes, that's perfectly agreeable. That gets me to a question and

[Elon Musk]

let me explain what the fundamental forcing function here is for why the borders are not secure, which is when you have a welfare state that provides substantial benefits to anyone who comes there, you create a very powerful economic forcing function for anyone who is below that standard of living to come to Europe. It is an obvious powerful driving force. And people will come there if their standard of living is from what they get in Europe is above where they are elsewhere in the world. It's very basic.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I completely agree with that.

[Elon Musk]

Yes. It's a very basic incentive structure.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Economic conditions, economic influences determine a lot of migration. I think asylum is a separate issue. But I think you're absolutely right. There are pressures for migration. However, there are other things that you haven't focused on, which is migration brings a lot of benefits and it also particularly does so in a continent like Europe, which is a rapidly aging continent. So we can agree that completely uncontrolled borders are a bad idea. But I am, I think Europe benefits from having immigration controlled. Immigration it brings.

[Elon Musk]

I'm in favor of immigration. Obviously I'd be hypocritical if I wasn't since I'm an immigrant to the United States. I'm in favor of immigration. If the person immigrating is going to be a productive member of society, if they're going to be honest and if they're not going to mistreat people in that country, they're going to.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

I can agree on all of those.

[Elon Musk]

Yes.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

But I think Europe does better on that than you give it credit for. That's, I think where we disagree. But let's move on. Tell me, what do you think people get most wrong about you?

[Elon Musk]

Well, I mean, you get. You just got a whole bunch of things wrong about me. Pretty much everything in the last. Just rewind. The last 20 minutes is all wrong.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So I got, we got. I got wrong. You're.

[Elon Musk]

Let's not be repetitive here, okay?

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

So that political side of you people get most wrong?

[Elon Musk]

Yeah, my political views are very, are centrist. They're not far right. And frankly, calling it far right I think is an insult to history, an insult to many peoples, and it is an outrageous falsehood. It's completely absurd. I literally have stated my position, which is that, and I've been very clear about this, which is that there need to be secure borders, that if there's an influx of immigrants, they need to be people who will agree with western ideals, with western values. And if they don't, and if there's a long term growth of people who do not or in some cases are adamantly opposed to western values, you are setting yourself up for civil war. But this is obvious. A child can see this. But this is not a right wing view. I'm simply stating reality.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Well, I think we can both agree that evidence will be able to decide which of us is more or less right. And we will find evidence for both of our views in different parts of Europe. The question is what the.

[Elon Musk]

Overall, yes, I'm very good at predicting the future. I'm not perfect, but I'm very good at predicting the future. My batting average is very high for a human. But this does have somewhat of a Cassandra effect where people don't believe that what I'm saying is likely to be true. Because I can see into the future with a higher bet. Not perfectly, but with a higher probability of success than most people, including things that people believe to be, in some cases, counterintuitive. Again, I'm not saying I'm always right, I certainly am not. But my batting average is very good. But this does have, like I said, a Cassandra effect where people don't realize that what I'm saying will come to pass. Maybe not exactly in the timing that I thought, but it will come to pass and history will write the verdict. But I think you will see that very little of what I have said is inaccurate. And a super majority of what I've said is very accurate and will come to pass unless there's some change in direction.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Do you have higher confidence level in your expectations of the future for AI, the first part of our conversation or the latter part, the political part?

[Elon Musk]

I mean, AI is digital superintelligence. It's called the singularity, like a black hole because you don't know what's going to happen after that. And it sort of sucks in everything. So I think really, in terms of the really big macro effects here, AI and robots will really dominate everything. So on a time scale that is less than 10 years, which probably renders

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

this other stuff that we've been talking about less important and less relevant.

[Elon Musk]

The AI robotics revolution will happen sooner. It will happen sooner than civil war in Britain. I would say civil war in Britain is probably 20 years away and the AI robot singularity is 10 years away.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Well, hopefully these benign, all powerful AIs will prevent such outcomes.

[Elon Musk]

They probably will.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Elon, I don't agree with everything you say, but it's always absolutely fascinating to talk to you. Thank you very much indeed.

[Elon Musk]

No, you're welcome. I'm not boring.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

You're definitely not boring. Thank you for listening to this interview from the Insider. If you know someone who might enjoy it, there's a way to share it with them. Find the episode on the Economist app. Click the Share button, then select Give Us a Gift. And to subscribe to the Economist, follow the link in the show. Notes for Our Best Offer.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

This Monday.com ad was created by a team of people and AI agents.

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

Reece, our content agent, wrote the copy based on our best practices, like mentioning Monday.com three times. That was the second.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

Johnny, our coordination agent, built the timeline

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

and kept everyone aligned.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

Olivia, our human creative director, stayed in

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

the loop because agents are great, but they don't always know when a joke lands.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

She had one note tell listeners it

[Zanny Minton Beddoes]

only takes minutes to build an agent. So minutes.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

Create your own AI agent. Today on Monday.com most people don't realize how much of their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the Internet, then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers. It's why you get endless robocalls and why ads seem to follow you everywhere. That's where Aura comes in. Aura actively removes your data from broker sites and keeps it off. They also instantly alert you if your information shows up in a breach or on the dark web. But Aura goes beyond data protection. With one app you get a vpn, antivirus, password manager, spam, call protection, dark web monitoring, and even up to $5 million in identity theft insurance. All backed by 24, 7 US based fraud support. Other companies might sell just credit monitoring or even just a vpn. Aura gives you all of it together at the same price competitors charge for just one service. Start your free trial today at aura.com/safety. Protect yourself now at aura.com safety.