Musk's surprise Davos appearance yields few new announcements

Businessinsider reported that Elon Musk took the stage at Davos for the first time in a surprise appearance on Thursday. He gave a wide-ranging interview but offered few new details. Interviewed by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Musk reiterated Tesla's mission of "abundance for all" and predicted that ubiquitous AI and robotics would expand the global economy and ultimately render work obsolete, saying AI would be "smarter than all of humanity collectively" by 2030 or 2031.

He also shared a timeline for Optimus, expecting Tesla to start selling the humanoid robots to the public "by the end of next year." On robotaxis he only reiterated hopes to get approval for Full Self-Driving in Europe and China next month; investors remain keen for details about when Tesla will remove human safety operators in Austin and begin planned operations in several new US cities.

Much of the conversation focused on space-based AI data centers: Musk said SpaceX would begin launching solar-powered AI satellites "within a few years," and that the lowest-cost place to run AI will be in space "within two years, maybe three at the latest." He also called ageing a "solvable problem" but warned society could "lack vibrancy" if humans were able to live forever.

Key Topics

Tech, Elon Musk, Tesla, Spacex, Optimus, World Economic Forum