# Robots could make intelligence far more economically valuable Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/robots-could-make-intelligence-far-more-economically/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy. - Speaker: [Elon Musk](https://realalpha.app/builders/elon-musk/) · Elon Musk is an entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX. - Host: [Walter Isaacson](https://realalpha.app/people/walter-isaacson/) · Host, The Builders - Show: The Builders with Walter Isaacson - Episode: [Elon Musk: The End of Work, the Death of Money, and a World Run by AI](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/), Oct 20, 2026 - Moment: 15:34 to 20:04 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/robots-could-make-intelligence-far-more-economically/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=934 ## Quote > “My guess is digital superintelligence probably improves the output of goods and services by **20% to 30**%, something like that.” > — [Elon Musk](https://realalpha.app/builders/elon-musk/) at [16:34](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=994) · The Builders with Walter Isaacson ## Takeaways 1. He estimates digital AI could add about 20–30% to economic output. 2. Robots can turn intelligence into physical action and experimentation. 3. He expects humans to find meaning in chosen activities, not necessary work. ## About this segment Elon Musk contrasts digital AI’s estimated 20–30% economic boost with robots that can manipulate objects and run experiments. He imagines a future where work and conventional money matter less. From “Elon Musk: The End of Work, the Death of Money, and a World Run by AI”, Oct 20, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/) ## Transcript From the transcript The Builders with Walter Isaacson publishes with the episode. [15:46](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=946) It does amazing things. But it seems to me that physical world AI is going to be an order of magnitude, maybe two orders of magnitude more important in the future. Do you agree? Yes, yes. [15:57](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=957) I definitely agree. Sometimes I think about dolphins and whales. Dolphins and whales Whales are actually very intelligent, but because they can't manipulate complex objects, I think that actually made the value of intelligence much less. To your point, once you have a robot that can manipulate atoms, can shape objects, the value of the intelligence becomes exponentially greater because it can now do things. It could have a science lab and run experiments and try to understand the nature of the universe. And I think you can look at this also in economic terms. My guess is digital superintelligence probably improves the output of goods and services by 20% to 30%, something like that. So I like to call it maybe a 30% increase in the economy of Earth. So it's still significant. It's like $ 30 trillion a year incremental. [17:06](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=1026) It's not very much, really. It's not transformative. There'll be a lot more stuff. I mean, 30% more stuff is still a lot. And this is just my rough guess. But if you have robots and you get to space and you 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. [17:30](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=1050) And then what happens? I mean, money becomes irrelevant, work becomes irrelevant. What's the future look like? [17:35](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=1055) Yeah, money becomes irrelevant. I mean, there will be still a currency, but I think currency will be measured in fundamental physics metrics like wattage and tonnage, mass and energy, mass and power or energy, basically. But conventional currency will not matter. So that's my guess. I think it's pretty obvious. [17:59](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=1079) And so what do we do then? As humans, what gives us meaning? How do we organize ourselves? [18:56](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=1136) I do struggle with this question. I think people will find ways to be happy in the same way that people who retire seem to be fairly happy, even though they're not working. But I think the reality is that humans will not... There won't be anything that humans can do that the AI and the robots can't do better so one analogy might be gardening where you don't have to grow your own fruits and vegetables you can just go buy them from the store but sometimes people like to grow their own fruits and vegetables and make dinner for friends and it's kind of a nice touch. [19:44](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=1184) What about creating art or that type of creativity? Is that more in the sphere of humans? [19:50](https://realalpha.app/v/AQnwQHMnCrE/?t=1190) Yeah, you could certainly create art or whatever you feel like doing, essentially.