"10 Billion Humanoids by 2040, More Than Humans"
Son Jeong-ui: "Super AI 10,000 Times Smarter Than Humans by 2035"
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, predicted on the 29th (local time) that if the current low birthrate trend continues, South Korea's population will be much smaller than one-third of its current level.
On the same day, Musk made a surprise appearance as a virtual panelist at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, stating, "In the short term, artificial intelligence (AI) is the most serious threat, but in the long term, it is the collapse of the global population."
He said, "Based on the current birthrate, South Korea's population will be much smaller than about one-third of what it is now." Last year, South Korea recorded an all-time low total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime) of 0.72. Musk had also mentioned in 2022 that "South Korea, along with Hong Kong, is experiencing the fastest population collapse in the world."
Musk predicted, "Europe will also have less than half of its current population," adding, "This assumes that the birthrate per woman suddenly recovers to 2.1, but if the current trend continues, the world population will decrease to less than 5% within three generations."
He also emphasized, "Most countries must prioritize addressing the birthrate issue," stating, "If people are not born, humanity will cease to exist, and all other policies will become meaningless." He added, "It requires action, not just words. I have many children myself, and I encourage others to have children as well."
Musk has a total of 11 children. He has five sons with his first wife, writer Justine Wilson, two sons and one daughter with Canadian singer Grimes, whom he dated after divorcing his second wife. It is also reported that his third child with Neuralink's female director, Shivon Zilis, was recently born.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, made a surprise appearance as a virtual panelist at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. [Photo by Reuters]
Regarding artificial intelligence (AI), he said, "It is advancing tenfold every year," and predicted, "It will probably be able to do everything humans can within one to two years."
Musk said, "2040 is a time too far ahead to predict accurately," but added, "By then, there will be over 10 billion humanoids, outnumbering humans." He estimated the price of humanoids to be between $20,000 and $25,000 (approximately 27.7 million to 34.6 million KRW) each. Humanoids refer to robots based on AI that think and act like humans.
He also mentioned the progress of Tesla's autonomous driving car development, stating, "I expect unsupervised autonomous driving to be possible in Texas, USA, by mid-next year." He said a spaceship would be launched to Mars within two years, and humans would be sent to Mars two years after that. Musk runs the space company SpaceX.
Musk recently revealed that Tesla installed a supercomputer for AI development. He also said that the humanoid 'Optimus' would be deployed in factories next year and could start sales in 2026. He is also operating the AI startup xAI.
Masayoshi Son, chairman of Japan's SoftBank Group (SBG), attended the event as a panelist and said, "AI is the only field I am focusing on," predicting, "By 2035, artificial super intelligence (ASI) that is 10,000 times superior to the human brain will emerge."
He forecasted that to realize such AI, a data center using 400GW of power and 200 million semiconductors would need to be built, with a total investment amounting to $1 trillion (approximately 1385 trillion KRW). Considering this, he refuted claims of an 'AI bubble' that AI companies like Nvidia are overvalued, stating that Nvidia is still undervalued.
Regarding Arm, a semiconductor design company in which SoftBank holds a 90% stake, Son emphasized, "It will become an AI-centered semiconductor company," adding, "Combining robotics and ASI will produce tremendous results."
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