Musk, who has always been astonishing, has spoken again.
Recently, Mathias D Pfner, CEO of Insider's parent company Axel Springer, conducted an exclusive interview at Tesla's factory in California.
Death is a relief, and I'm more worried about AI going wrong
In the interview, Musk boldly pointed out three major threats facing humanity: "religious extremism", "declining fertility rates", and the "derailment" of artificial intelligence development.
Apparently, death was not what he feared.
"I spend a lot of time expressing my concerns about fertility." Musk said, "This is perhaps the greatest threat and challenge to human civilization."
Musk has been communicating his concerns about declining fertility. He believes that during the epidemic, this phenomenon has exacerbated the "fertility trough".
"I don't see a turnaround, so I'm very worried about it. Year after year, the situation is getting worse. I used to talk to my friends about it, and they were all annoyed."
Although the low fertility rate is prominent among several things Musk is worried about, he is not worried about death.
He said, "Of course I want to live a long and healthy life. But I'm not afraid of death. I think death is a relief. I hope to live until SpaceX is fully realized, and that's enough."
While many billionaires, including Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos, are exploring how to maintain their youth in a scientific way, Musk says he's not at all interested in extending human life.
"I don't think it's necessary for us to let humanity live for a long time, it would suffocate society," he said.
"The truth is, a lot of people don't change their minds. They only have death. If they can't pass away, we will be trapped in old ideas forever and will not come out. So society can't progress."
On the other hand, Musk says his biggest wish is to build a self-sufficient city on Mars.
"I would be happy if humans could have a self-sufficient city on Mars," he said. Because then, people will live longer. I felt that we had only a little bit of consciousness, like a tiny candle emitting a faint glow in the endless void. Of course, we don't want that light to cease to exist."
When the brain is transferred to the robot, are you still you?
Whether it's a reduction in the number of humans in the future, or going to Mars to build cities, labor is obviously not enough.
In this regard, the alternative given by Musk is: humanoid robots.
"The pace of advance in artificial intelligence is very fast, just look at Boston Dynamics, and every year they show better works."
Apparently, Tesla also has its own humanoid robot, optimus, which is "Optimus Prime".
Its prototype is expected to launch in 2022 and is likely to achieve "some degree of mass production" around the end of 2023.
Musk has said more than once that Optimus Prime is responsible for repetitive, boring or dangerous work, at least initially. In this interview, Musk directly called it a universal "worker" robot.
In daily life, Optimus Prime can help with laundry, cooking, cleaning, and so on. In factories, you can do moving parts or other similar manual labor.
However, the robots we see in factories now are usually large robotic arms, so how can Optimus Prime use its "talents" here?
Regarding the bipedal design of tesla's robot, Musk said that the world designed by humans is designed to interact with a creature with "two hands, ten fingers and two legs."
So if you want a robot to adapt and be able to do what humans can do, it has to have roughly the same size and shape and capabilities.
Musk even believes that one day humans will be able to download the content of their brains to Optimus Prime.
"We can download things that we think make us so unique. Of course, if you're not in that body anymore, there's going to be a difference, but in terms of preserving our memories, our personalities, I think it's possible to do that.
Tesla's most important project: "Optimus Prime"
When Musk first announced his humanoid robot in August 2021, many people took it as a joke. Especially when you see a real person dressed in a robot costume doing a demonstration.
However, despite the weird display session, Musk seems to be very interested in this robot.
At the time, the code name for Tesla robots was "Tesla Bot."
Made of a smooth "lightweight material", it is 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm) tall, weighs 125 pounds (56 kg), walks at 5 miles per hour (8 km/h), and can lift up to 45 pounds (20 kg) of items.
The face consists of a camera and a screen to display a variety of information. The limbs are controlled by 40 drive motors and have human-grade hand functions. Both feet are able to sense and respond, achieving balance and agile movements.
Like Tesla cars, the robot will use a vision-based neural network, an AP's camera, and a full suite of computing devices for FSDs.
Musk said Tesla should be the world's largest robotics company because "our cars are like semi-sentient robots with wheels."
Therefore, it seems quite reasonable to use technologies such as "dojo" supercomputer chips and fully automatic driving AI to train humanoid robots.
On the January 2022 earnings call, Musk told investors that Tesla's development of humanoid robots is the most important job of the year.
Musk said that over time, Tesla's robotics business even has the potential to surpass the car business.
At the same time, Optimus Prime may also play an important role in the field of healthcare. Today, patients can't find anything else to replace a trained health care worker.
However, robots have the potential to help with simple tasks or call on experts in an emergency. But the realization of this technology relies on the combination of robotics and another revolutionary project of Musk, that is, Neuralink.
If Neuralink could really be integrated into Optimus Prime, and Tesla could design a humanoid robot and work with patients using Neuralink, it might really give critical medical help to patients with paralysis or other diseases.
The richest man in the world: I feel lonely
Although Musk has a vigorous vision and plan for the future development of mankind, when it comes to personal problems, he has no ideas, and even says that he is sometimes "lonely".
"If a person wants to be truly happy, then he has to be happy at work and in love." Looking at it this way, I think my level of happiness is not slipping."
Shocked. Musk has nothing, it is simply a winner in life.
He explained the reason for this in detail, "I dare say that everyone feels lonely sometimes. But this is a very basic thing. For example, if I'm working on a starship, I'm left alone in my room thinking. Most crucially, my dog is not with me either. Then I must be lonely at this time, because I am alone, and even my dog is not with me."
The big-name Tesla CEO lives in Casada, a small $50,000 house. This is the house Musk rented from SpaceX.
In addition, after Musk and singer Grimes separated, Grimes said that "Musk's life is sometimes below the poverty line." She felt like she was bound by two very different worlds.
Grimes said, "Sometimes I wonder, can't we live in an unsafe house for $40,000?" Our neighbors, secretly photographing us every day, are insecure. And I had to eat peanut butter for eight days in a row."
Apparently, Musk wants to build a city on Mars than to live in the Big House himself.
The pattern is still quite large!
Zheshang Kechuang: Whether it is the reduction of the number of human beings in the future, or going to Mars to establish a city, the labor force is obviously not enough. In this regard, the alternative given by Musk is: humanoid robots.