埃隆·马斯克表示，人工智能和机器人——而非政府开支削减——是解决美国国家债务问题的唯一途径。在作家沃尔特·艾萨克森新推出的《建造者》播客节目中，马斯克表示，他在特朗普第二任期内担任特别政府雇员的130天经历让他得出了这一看法。作为世界首富，马斯克于2025年1月至5月期间担任白宫DOGE办公室的实际负责人，致力于削减联邦开支。
Elon Musk said artificial intelligence and robots — not government spending cuts — are the only way to fix the US national debt problem. Speaking on a newly released episode of author Walter Isaacson's "The Builders" podcast, Musk said his 130-day stint as a special government employee in the second Trump administration led him to that view. Musk, the world's richest person, served as the de facto leader of the White House DOGE office from January to May 2025, where he sought to slash federal spending.
“我得出结论，解决国家债务的唯一方式是依靠人工智能和机器人。我们不可能靠‘省’来解决问题，”马斯克对艾萨克森说，并称后者“不可能”。根据财政部数据，美国国家债务负荷在8月达到创纪录的40万亿美元，并持续攀升。“也许如果总统将其作为首要目标，我们可以做到，但问题是，如果你试图解决赤字并停止浪费性开支，你会在那种情况下结交很多敌人，”马斯克说。
"I came to the conclusion that the only way we're going to solve the national debt is with AI and robots. We're not going to solve it by trying to save our way there," Musk told Isaacson, calling the latter "impossible." The US national debt load hit a record $40 trillion in August and has continued to climb, according to Treasury data. "Maybe if the president made that his, you know, primary goal, we could do that, but the problem is if you try to solve the deficit and stop wasteful spending, you make a lot of enemies in that situation," Musk said.
这位特斯拉和SpaceX首席执行官表示，华盛顿的政治领导人大多不愿削减联邦开支到足以显著缩小赤字的程度。“这种意愿不存在，而且不仅仅是总统层面。总统、众议院、参议院和司法部门都没有这种意愿，”马斯克说。他补充道，“基本上，政府中任何有权势的人，真的，除了像兰德·保罗这样极少数例外之外，实际上都不想削减开支——不，他们不想。”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said political leaders in Washington are mostly unwilling to rein in federal spending enough to significantly shrink the deficit. "The appetite is not there, and it's not just at the presidency. The appetite is not there at the presidency, the House, the Senate, or the judiciary," Musk said. He added, "Basically, no one in authority in the government whatsoever, really, with maybe a few rare exceptions of like the Rand Pauls of the world type of thing, actually wants to reduce spending — no, they don't."
马斯克估计，“数字超级智能”可能会使全球商品和服务产出增加20%至30%，他估计这一增长每年可为世界经济增加约30万亿美元。“如果你拥有机器人，并且进入太空并在月球上实施质量驱动器，那么我认为，你可能达到地球经济规模的百万倍，”他说。
Musk estimated that "digital superintelligence" could boost the global output of goods and services by 20% to 30% — an increase he estimated could add roughly $30 trillion a year to the world economy. "If you have robots and you get to space and can do a mass driver on the moon, then you can get to, I think, potentially a million times the size of the Earth economy," he said.
马斯克表示，这最终可能会让金钱变得“无关紧要”。“货币仍将存在，但我认为货币将以瓦数、吨位、质量和能量等基本物理指标来衡量，”他说，并预测道：“传统货币将不再重要。”在采访中，马斯克还回顾了他手持电锯与政府效率部共事的时光，承认自己“冲动行事”。“我认为我本应更多地待在幕后，而且可能只应持续一两个月，因为到那时你已经大致看到了所有该看的东西，”马斯克告诉艾萨克森。马斯克表示，他本应离开并“比我实际做的更早一些专注于人工智能”。
This could ultimately make money "irrelevant," Musk said. "There will still be currency, but I think currency will be measured in fundamental physics metrics like wattage and tonnage, mass and energy," he said, predicting, "Conventional currency will not matter." During the interview, Musk also reflected on his chainsaw-wielding time with the Department of Government Efficiency, admitting he got "carried away." "I think I should have been more in the background and probably only had it last for a month or two, because at that point you've sort of seen most of what there is to see," Musk told Isaacson. Musk said he should have left and "focused on AI a little sooner than I did."