# Elon Musk: This Is The 'One Way To Make Everyone Wealthy' *Forbes* ยท https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFJQV8haqYc ## Summary In this short Forbes interview, Elon Musk discusses his approach to innovation, which he frames as creation rather than disruption. He points to reusable rockets at SpaceX, affordable electric cars at Tesla, and useful humanoid robots as examples. He argues that humanoid robots will be the biggest industry ever and that AI and robotics are the only way to make everyone wealthy and eliminate poverty. ## Key points - Musk says his work is mostly creation rather than disruption, since reusable rockets, electric cars, and useful humanoid robots did not exist before. - He argues reusability is the essence of revolutionizing space travel, because throwing rockets away makes access to space extremely expensive. - Tesla's goal was to make electric cars compelling and affordable when no electric cars were available to buy. - Musk claims there are no useful humanoid robots today, only gimmicks, and that Tesla will make the first actually useful ones. - He predicts humanoid robots will be the biggest product ever, bigger than cell phones, because everyone will want one or more. - Musk says AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty, where NGOs and talk have not succeeded. - He states there is basically only one way to make everyone wealthy: AI and robotics. - He expects Tesla to pioneer humanoid robots but says many other companies will also make them. ## Notes ### Creation, Not Disruption - Musk rejects the label of disruption, saying his work is "mostly not disruption, it's creation." - He cites SpaceX reusable rockets: there were no reusable rockets before, and reusability is the essence of revolutionizing space travel. - Throwing the rocket away every time makes the cost of access to space extremely high. ### Electric Cars - When Tesla started, you couldn't buy any electric cars, to the best of his knowledge. - Tesla's goal was to make electric cars compelling and affordable. ### Humanoid Robots - Musk says there are no useful humanoid robots at this point, only "gimmicks." - He believes Tesla will make the first actually useful humanoid robots, calling it "quite a revolution." - He compares the appeal to everyone wanting their own personal C3PO or R2D2, and says a humanoid robot will be "better than R2D2 and C3PO combined times 10." ### The Biggest Industry Ever - Musk predicts humanoid robots will be the biggest industry or biggest product ever, bigger than cell phones or anything else. - Everyone will want one, or maybe more than one, and there will be many in industry providing products and services. ### Eliminating Poverty - People have long talked about eliminating poverty, with many NGOs trying, but not succeeding. - Musk argues AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty. - Tesla will pioneer humanoid robots, but many other companies will make them too. - He concludes there is basically only one way to make everyone wealthy: AI and robotics. ## Transcript [00:00] You have a big fascination of something all of us have admired, first order thinking, which Genesis sometimes calls first order scaling. Which is an opportunity for you how you have dropped the cost of batteries from a thousand per kilowatt hour to sub hundred bucks. And right now you're doing the same thing with robotics for actuators with servo rotors and motors. So I want to hear from you how do you manage to always disrupt every single industry with that thinking? Well, it's mostly not disruption, it's creation. So with say SpaceX with uh reusable rockets, uh there really weren't any reusable rockets. Um but the essence of getting of revolutionizing space travel is reusability. If you throw the rocket [00:57] away every time, the cost of access to space is extremely high. Um with respect to electric cars, there there weren't any electric cars when we started making them really. They you couldn't buy any to the best of my knowledge. Um so with Tesla we wanted to make electric cars compelling um and affordable. That was the goal. Um the you know with respect to humanoid robotics, there are no useful humanoid robotic robots at this point. Um there are sort of gimmicks, but there are not there are no actually useful humanoid robots. Um and I think Tesla's going to make the first actually useful humanoid robots. Um and this will be quite a revolution. And I think something that will that everyone will want [01:42] uh because I was thinking like who who wouldn't want their own personal C3PO R2D2? Oh, yeah. Of course. Everyone would want one. Right? And and then there would be many in industry uh providing products and services. This is why I say that humanoid robots will be the biggest industry or the biggest product ever. Um bigger than cell phones or anything else because everyone's going to want one. And uh or maybe more than more than one and there'll be many in industry. Um I just want R2D2 in C3PO's body. Yeah. There you go. >> Um >> [laughter] >> well, to I mean a humanoid robot will be better than R2D2 and C3PO combined times 10. Yeah. So the it and and you know people often talk about uh sort of eliminating poverty and that [02:32] kind of thing, but really the this how long have they been talking about that? Um there's lots of talk uh you know, there's lots of NGOs sort of trying to do these things, but but really not succeeding. Um and and and you know, the evidence speaks for itself. Uh but but but AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty. And Tesla won't be the only one that makes them. I think Tesla will pioneer this, but there will be many other companies that make humanoid robots. But there there's only basically one way to uh make everyone wealthy and that is AI and robotics.