Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, artificial intelligence has gained a reputation as an accessible, go-to solution for everything, from medicine to agriculture and energy. However, Elon Musk believes that AI and robotics are the very tools needed to address the United States" growing debt crisis.
In an interview with podcaster Nikhil Kamath, Musk said productivity driven by AI and robotics can be "pretty much the only thing that"s going to solve the US debt crisis." The United States is currently $38.34 trillion in debt.
"You know that because currently the US debt is insanely high, and the interest payments on the debt exceed the entire military budget of the United States, just the interest payments, and that"s, at least in the short term, going to continue to increase. So I think, actually, the only thing that can solve the debt situation is AI and robotics." Musk added.
According to Musk, relying on AI and robotics at a very large scale would probably cause significant deflation by dramatically increasing the output of goods and services.
"If real business services output increases slower than the money supply, you have inflation. It"s that simple. So if you have AI and robotics have a dramatic increase in output of goods and services, probably you will have deflation," Musk said. The billionaire also predicted that, within three years or less, the output of goods and services will outpace inflation.
In another part of the interview, Musk once again reiterated his earlier point that the expansion of robotics and artificial intelligence could make work optional. He painted a scenario where productivity is so high and goods and services are so widely accessible that no one would need to work to cover their basic needs.
Elon Musk"s idea of addressing the US debt crisis through AI and robotics comes at a time when companies are laying off employees to replace them with automation and AI. While it remains uncertain whether artificial intelligence can solve the debt crisis, current trends suggest that AI could itself lead to widespread unemployment across the United States.
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