Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, Tesla, X, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), on Monday gave Ted Cruz some bold predictions on the senator’s “Verdict” podcast, including his guess that the Earth faces a 10-20% chance of “killer robots annihilating humanity.”
“Is Skynet real?” the Texas Republican asked Musk on the podcast, referring to the fictional genocidal artificial intelligence network of villains in the “Terminator” film franchise that AI critics cite as a possible future for the Earth with advances in technology. “How real is the prospect of killer robots annihilating humanity?”
“20% likely,” Musk responded without hesitation. “Maybe 10%,” adding that it could happen in “five to 10 years.”
Although Musk gave the macabre forecast, he argued his prediction — not seemingly based on any hard evidence — means the world will very likely avoid a robot endgame:
“I mean, you could look at it like the glass is 80-90% full,” he said. “80% likely will have extreme prosperity for all.”
“There’ll be ultimately billions of humanoid robots,” Musk added.
Musk also gave several predictions about autonomous driving — an industry that he has a direct financial stake in with Tesla — and the future of work:
“All cars will be self-driving,” Musk said. “In 10 years, probably 90% of miles driven will be autonomous.”
“In five years, probably 50% of all miles driven will be autonomous,” he added.
Cruz asked, “If AI will be smarter than any person, how many jobs go away … and what do people do if you’ve got millions of people that are losing their jobs?”
“Goods and services will become close to free,” Musk replied. “It’s not as though people will be wanting in terms of goods and services.”
“You’ll have, I don’t know, call it tens of billions of robots — they will make you anything or provide any service you want … for basically next to nothing,” Musk added. “The challenge will be … fulfillment. How do you derive fulfillment and meaning in life?”
