Elon Musk has admitted he became too consumed by politics during his volatile alliance with Donald Trump and his brief appointment as the president\u2019s financial axman, running the so-called \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge).<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s richest person, and briefly its first trillionaire<\/a> after his SpaceX company floated on the New York stock exchange in June, made the confession in a wide-ranging interview<\/a> with the Economist published on Thursday. He shared his positions on subjects from foreign wars to AI, and made a number of eye-opening predictions for the future.<\/p>\n \u201cI got carried away, frankly,\u201d Musk said of his relationship with the president, whom he helped get elected in 2024 with $200m in financial backing<\/a>, then served during his controversial tenure as head of Doge, overseeing $150bn in \u201charmful\u201d budget cuts<\/a> and forcing tens of thousands of people out of federal jobs.<\/p>\n The owner of Tesla<\/a> did not expand on the statement, but appeared cognizant of the impact of his dalliance with the levers of power in Washington DC.<\/p>\n In December, he offered in a podcast<\/a> with Katie Miller, wife of Trump\u2019s White House adviser Stephen Miller, that his wrecking-ball approach to the federal government had been only partially successful, and that given the opportunity he probably wouldn\u2019t do it again.<\/p>\n \u201cI think instead of doing Doge, I would have basically worked on my companies,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n Talking to the Economist, however, he appeared to relish the attention his political involvement had garnered, and the influence he believed he exerted. \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize that what I\u2019m saying will come to pass,\u201d he said, the outlet referring to Musk \u2013 at least in his own mind \u2013 as a modern-day Cassandra.<\/p>\n The interview, a 90-minute conversation for the publication\u2019s video platform The Insider, recorded at a Tesla factory in Texas, was Musk\u2019s first since the SpaceX<\/a> flotation, in which his personal wealth briefly topped $1.25tn before dropping back to a relatively penurious $750bn.<\/p>\n He reflected on moving from \u201cexhilaration to terror\u201d in a single day, but was not referring to the SpaceX share price. Instead, he was talking about artificial intelligence, which he believes will ultimately render work by humans \u201coptional\u201d.<\/p>\n AI systems and robots will eventually handle most digital and physical jobs, he said, and the merger of his own AI venture with SpaceX will allow him to develop systems to perform cognitive tasks such as software programming while Tesla manufactures humanoids.<\/p>\n Musk, the Economist said, plans to power his AI venture with datacenters in space, which experts have warned will be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d for Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n Within five years, Musk said, AI intelligence systems may surpass the sum of all human intelligence. Within 10 years, robots in the workplace will help usher in an era of such \u201camazing abundance\u201d that money will become meaningless.<\/p>\n It was, however, Musk\u2019s political views, and predictions, that were perhaps the most contentious parts of the interview. The UK, a country he has not visited for years, but whose politics, especially on immigration and race, have become a recent obsession<\/a>, will become engulfed in a civil war within 20 years, he claimed.<\/p>\n Asked if he was anti-Muslim, Musk attacked the questioner, a policy of diversion similar to that which has served Trump well, and which he has employed previously, notably calling the Guardian \u201cirrelevant\u201d when it decided to withdraw<\/a> from his \u201ctoxic\u201d social media platform X.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m against rape and murder. I\u2019m against the imposition of rules and laws that are contrary to what we\u2019ve come to accept in the west,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a crying shame that traditional media, like you, don\u2019t recognize this.\u201d<\/p>\n He described the media\u2019s characterization of Europe\u2019s far right as \u201cfalse, misleading and nonsense\u201d, and argued that it was made up of \u201cnormal people\u201d seeking safe cities, secure borders and sensible spending, the Economist said.<\/p>\n