Musk tells Isaacson AI and robots are the only path to fixing the deficit

Elon Musk told biographer Walter Isaacson that artificial intelligence and robotics are the sole viable methods for resolving the United States national debt, marking a significant pivot from his earlier efforts to reduce federal spending through administrative cuts. In an interview for the new podcast series "The Builders with Walter Isaacson," which premieres Tuesday, Musk stated that the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, experiment failed to achieve its fiscal goals. "The only way we're going to solve the national debt is with AI and robots," Musk said, adding that the government cannot solve the issue by attempting to save its way out of it.

Musk's remarks acknowledge that the DOGE initiative, which he once headed, was a flop. He explained that there is no appetite among the presidency, the House, the Senate, or the judiciary to cut spending. "Basically, no one in authority in the government whatsoever... actually wants to reduce spending," he said, noting that only rare exceptions like Rand Paul share that view. Musk argued that if a president made deficit reduction their primary goal, it might be possible, but noted that stopping wasteful spending creates enemies. He observed that President Trump prefers to be liked and dislikes people being upset about funding being stopped.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO admitted he "kinda got carried away" during his time in the White House and was gone from his companies for too long. He suggested he should have stayed more in the background and limited his involvement to one or two months rather than the four months he was formally in the administration. "I should have gone back and focused on AI a little sooner than I did," Musk said. When Isaacson asked if the West Wing was too seductive, Musk conceded it was a little bit, citing the coolness of being in the Oval Office during momentous decisions.

Isaacson, who authored the 2023 biography "Elon Musk" and the 2014 history "The Innovators," included a warning in a new preface to an updated edition of "The Innovators" published this week. He cautioned that pioneers such as Steve Jobs would view autonomous AI agents lacking strong human oversight with skepticism. Isaacson launched "The Builders" to press AI leaders on these dangers and understand their motivations. He described Musk as an amazing engineer pushing forward with Starship, Starlink, Neuralink, and autonomous EVs, but noted that Musk is prone to darkness and conspiracies in politics and people.

The podcast series, created by media company Kaleidoscope, features conversations with Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Fei-Fei Li, and Dario and Daniela Amodei. A series preview describes the tech legends opening up about their ambitions, fears regarding humanity, and what drives them to build so big and fast. The conversations are characterized as intimate, charming, and sometimes chilling.