The latest version of Elon Musk's "outrageous remarks": Pronounce the death sentence on mobile phones in advance. AI and robots are the only way out.

Elon Musk's latest interview is here, covering topics such as AI, robots, and starships, and also responding to many controversies.

Not long ago, Musk was a guest on Joe Rogan's interview show. For nearly three hours, without a teleprompter, the whole conversation was improvised. During the conversation, Musk put three businesses - AI robots, starships, and social platforms - on the same narrative line for the first time, presenting a radical future in a grand narrative.

Musk predicted that in the next 5 - 6 years, traditional mobile phones and apps will completely disappear. Most of the content people consume (such as music and videos) will be generated by AI. By then, mobile phones will become "edge nodes for artificial intelligence inference."

He also predicted that AI will surpass the intelligence of a single human in 2026 and exceed the total wisdom of all humanity in 2030. In the future, robots and AI are not "future industrial choices" but "essential tools for maintaining the operation of society."

"The only way for the United States to get out of the debt crisis and avoid bankruptcy is to develop artificial intelligence and robots."

Reviewing the entire conversation, actually, not much was said about the core automotive business. Instead, it was more like depicting an "installation manual for the operating system" of a future society.

Although it's abstract, who can guarantee that this won't be one of the final scenarios of the future world?

Change Is Imminent

"In the future, there won't be an operating system or apps. Your phone will just display pixels and emit sounds. It will predict what you most want to see and hear and generate it in real - time. We'll integrate AI into this device as much as possible."

Musk believes that there won't be traditional mobile phones in the future. "What we call a mobile phone is actually an edge node for AI inference, equipped with some communication modules for connection." In essence, it can be understood that the AI on the server side will communicate with the AI on the user's device and generate any real - time video the user wants.

Impliedly, in the future, all the information humans need will be obtained through artificial intelligence, and a clear time node is given - 5 or 6 years later, or even earlier.

It's worth mentioning that OpenAI is collaborating with Jony Ive, the former chief designer of Apple, to develop a pocket - sized screenless device that can run AI models locally and complete complex tasks relying on the cloud, which highly coincides with what Musk described as an "AI inference edge node."

In addition, Musk also provided a clear timeline for AI development: AI's intelligence will surpass that of a single human in 2026 and exceed the total wisdom of all humanity in 2030.

In the future, AI and robots are like a "supersonic tsunami," and the countdown to the replacement of jobs has begun: Desk jobs such as email processing and phone customer service are disappearing rapidly. In fields like programming and content creation, large - scale replacement will occur within 1 - 2 years. Professions such as driving and logistics will transform as autonomous driving matures. Only physical labor such as welding and cooking will remain longer, but ultimately, they will also be replaced by robots.

In Musk's view, work will gradually change from a "survival necessity" to a "personal choice" because humans will have a production system composed of robots and AI.

But at the same time, it will inevitably bring a problem - the oncoming wave of unemployment.

This is a process from "universal basic income" to "universal high - income." Everyone can obtain the goods and services they need without having to work passively to survive.

Of course, "robots are not meant to replace humans but to prevent society from collapsing." Without robots, the labor shortage will reduce production capacity, shrink the tax base, and cut off the funding source for the welfare system, thus triggering a financial crisis and social instability.

If robots undertake basic production and service - oriented labor, humans can maintain a high level of well - being and invest their creativity in the fields of science and technology, culture, education, and exploration.

This is also one of the key reasons why Musk believes that robots and AI are not "future industrial choices" but "essential tools for maintaining the operation of society."

Musk believes that there are many possibilities in the future, including the "Terminator scenario" (AI destroying humanity). "The probability of this won't be 0%." So, what humans need is an AI that is extremely truth - seeking, curious, and treats all lives equally. "I think a curious and truth - seeking AI will want to promote human development because we are much more interesting than a pile of stones."

He also gave an example. Humans could wipe out all gorillas, but that hasn't happened. Although we have encroached on their environment, we actually try to protect the habitats of chimpanzees and gorillas.

Based on this, Musk believes that in a good scenario, AI will do the same for humans. It "will promote the development of human civilization and care about human well - being. I think this is the goal we should strive for."

However, in Musk's view, among all mainstream AIs, Grok is the only AI system that treats all human lives equally.

He emphasized that the problem with AI is not a matter of motivation but controllability. The most core issue of artificial intelligence is not whether it can become smarter, but whether humans can still decide what it does when its capabilities are strong enough.

He pointed out that when a system can automatically optimize its own models and parameters, it will no longer rely on humans to manually adjust the training method. The risk brought by this is not that "AI will have malicious intentions," but that humans can no longer predict its behavior patterns.

Therefore, Musk believes that "safe AI" must be able to accept external constraints from humans, rather than relying solely on training data to infer "human values."

He also emphasized that to maintain the controllability of AI, humans need to retain a "stop button" - a mechanism that allows humans to decide whether the system continues to operate even when the system's capabilities far exceed those of humans. If this mechanism is missing, once the model enters a self - improvement cycle, its behavior may go beyond human understanding in a very short time.

The Vessel for Moving into the New World

In this conversation, besides AI and robots, Musk didn't talk about businesses such as rockets and cars separately. Instead, he elaborated on SpaceX and Tesla within the same framework. In Musk's view, both are indispensable parts of the future world.

In this interview, Musk compared the current situation of human civilization to the highest - difficulty level of a video game: "We are facing the most critical level in this 'game': either achieve unprecedented prosperity through AI and technology, or head towards the collapse of civilization in ideology and lies."

Facing this crucial turning point, he put forward a clear operating guideline: "You must explore the boundaries - push things to the point of failure to know where the limits are." In his view, this applies not only to the research and development of starships but also to the basic logic of civilizational progress.

During the research and development of the starship, Musk revealed that he would intentionally put it in a worse flight state than expected. For example, they deliberately removed the heat - shield tiles at the most critical positions to observe "if we lose a heat - shield tile there, will it be catastrophic or non - catastrophic?"

The ultimate goal of all these research and development processes is to achieve the full reusability of the rocket.

Musk explained why the traditional aerospace model cannot be scaled up. If an airplane has to crash after each flight and a new one has to be built, the aviation industry simply couldn't exist. For a long time, rockets have operated under this logic. Launch once, crash once, and build a new one. The cost and cycle of manufacturing itself determine that aerospace can only be borne by countries and cannot form a commercial scale.

In this regard, the "reusability" Musk mentioned is not just a simple technological improvement but a prerequisite for changing the aerospace economic model.

If the full reusability of Starship is achieved, the launch cost will drop from the previous "hundreds of millions of dollars per launch" to the level of "hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per launch." And this gap will determine whether humans can use space as they use ports and airports.

In Musk's description, Tesla cars and SpaceX are not two separate projects but two vessels within the same logical chain - one happening on the ground and the other in outer space. They both attempt to turn the "future" into something tangible in the real world in an engineering - verifiable way.

This idea came to him when his son Saxon asked, "Why do we still live as if it were 2015?"

In his view, a car is not just a means of transportation but also "the appearance of the spirit of the era." This is why, despite the repeated delays of the Cybertruck, he still insists on building it.

"There are already enough 'normal cars' in the market. Tesla's goal is not to build a better car within the existing paradigm, but to promote the transition of cars from traditional industrial products to the technological expression form of the next era."

Musk described it as "letting the future truly enter the real world" rather than remaining in concept drawings, movies, or experimental displays.

Then, Musk mentioned the next - generation product of the Tesla Roadster. He said that the upcoming new Roadster will be a "very concrete and very direct disruptive release." Musk revealed that it may be unveiled before the end of this year.

He emphasized that "it looks like a car, but it's crazier than any of James Bond's cars. Even if you add up all of James Bond's cars, it's still crazier." There's even a possibility of a flying car.

After all, in the interview, Musk didn't deny the possibility of a "flying Roadster."

This article is from the WeChat official account "Super Electric Robot", author: Wang Lei. Republished by 36Kr with permission.