Elon Musk says everyone will want their ‘personal robot’ — but warns of ‘Terminator’-style risks

Elon Musk thinks the future belongs to robots.

Speaking on Tuesday at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh, the Tesla CEO predicted that humanoid robots could eventually number in the tens of billions, transforming the global economy.

“Everyone will want their personal robot,” Musk said. “You can think of it like having your own personal C-3PO or R2-D2 — but even better,” he said, referring to “Star Wars” characters.

With that scale of automation, Musk said productivity could soar and usher in what he called a “universal high income,” where goods and services become so abundant that “no one wants for anything.”

Musk has skin in the robot game. He called Tesla’s humanoid Optimus potentially the “biggest product ever of any kind” during a launch event for its robotaxi last October.

He said Tesla aimed to make a million robots a year, although the project still faced technical and geopolitical hurdles.

Musk has been making similar predictions about robots for some time. In a February interview at Dubai’s World Government Summit, in which he said humanoid robots and deep intelligence will unlock the global economy’s potential by providing “quasi-infinite products and services.”

He also made a comparable statement at an AI safety summit in the UK in 2023 that AI would eventually do “everything,” making jobs optional and turning work into something done purely for “personal satisfaction.”

Still, in Riyadh on Tuesday, he acknowledged the risks.

“You can have a James Cameron sort of movie — you know, ‘Terminator.’ We don’t want that one,” he said. “But having sort of a ‘Star Trek’ future would be great.”

Musk told the All-In podcast last year he estimated there was a 20% risk of “human annihilation” from AI.

The CEO wants to bring Tesla’s robotaxis to Saudi Arabia.

“You can think of future cars as being robots on four wheels,” Musk said.

He didn’t provide a timeline, though the company has said it aims to begin a robotaxi pilot in Austin in June.

Saudi officials have embraced the idea, citing autonomous vehicles as part of their Vision 2030 strategy to diversify the economy away from oil.

Uber is already moving ahead with robotaxi plans in the kingdom, partnering with Chinese firm Pony.AI and signing a new agreement with the kingdom’s transport authority.

Uber also owns Careem, the dominant ride-hailing app in the Middle East.

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