Could AI make money irrelevant? Elon Musk says the answer may lie in the Sun

Elon Musk has offered a glimpse into what he believes could be a radically different economic future, suggesting that conventional money may eventually lose relevance if artificial intelligence gains access to enormous amounts of energy and achieves intelligence far beyond that of humans.

In a post on X, the billionaire entrepreneur said that capturing just one-millionth of the Sun's power for AI systems would result in computational capabilities that are "much more than a million times the intelligence of all of humanity."

"It is humbling to consider that if we harness just 1 millionth of the Sun's power for AI, that will be much more than a million times the intelligence of all of humanity," Musk wrote.

According to Musk, achieving such a feat would require building an extensive industrial infrastructure beyond Earth. He said humanity would need to manufacture solar panels and radiators on the Moon and launch them into deep space using a "mass driver," an electromagnetic system capable of sending material into space without relying on conventional rockets.

Mass and energy could replace dollars

Musk argued that long before such a level of AI capability is reached, the global economy itself could undergo a fundamental transformation.

"Conventional money will no longer be relevant. Mass and energy will take the place of dollars," he said.

The comments reflect Musk's view that energy and computation are ultimately the foundations of economic productivity. In a future dominated by advanced AI and automation, access to raw materials and abundant energy could become more important than traditional measures of wealth.

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A future measured by energy

The remarks also echo ideas associated with the Kardashev Scale, a framework proposed by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev that classifies civilizations according to the amount of energy they are able to harness.

Capturing even a tiny fraction of the Sun's energy would represent an enormous leap from current levels of human energy consumption and would require technologies and infrastructure that remain far beyond today's capabilities.

Manufacturing equipment on the Moon and deploying vast arrays in deep space would mark a new era of industrialization beyond Earth.

A long-term vision for AI

Musk's comments come at a time when governments and technology companies are investing heavily in artificial intelligence and the computing infrastructure needed to support increasingly powerful models.

While the notion that AI capabilities are linked to computing power and energy resources is widely accepted within the industry, Musk's prediction of a future in which money becomes obsolete remains highly speculative.

For now, conventional currencies remain the backbone of the global economy. But according to Musk, the rise of superintelligent AI and humanity's ability to harness vast amounts of energy could eventually redefine the meaning of wealth itself, replacing dollars with something far more fundamental: mass and energy.

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