Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy says current living standards will look medieval in the age of superintelligence
In the age of super intelligence, the current standards of living will look medieval. The problems that society worries about right now will be largely irrelevant. It’ll be the equivalent of current society worrying about the bubonic plague.
Context
Leaders building AI products often frame the technology as world changing, and this is a prominent example of that view.
Ashok Elluswamy leads AI at Tesla, according to his profile, including its self driving work. This is an opinion with no specifics.
Deep dive
On October 20, Ashok Elluswamy posted that in the age of superintelligence, current standards of living will look medieval.
He wrote that the problems society worries about right now will be largely irrelevant, comparing it to current society worrying about the bubonic plague.
Superintelligence usually refers to AI that is far more capable than humans across most tasks. Elluswamy did not say when he expects it to arrive, which problems he means, or how they would be solved, so the post is a statement of belief rather than an argument.
The view is common among leaders at AI and robotics companies, who often describe the technology as leading to abundance. Critics argue such framing can play down near term harms and the uneven way new technology spreads.
Tesla is working on self driving cars and the Optimus humanoid robot, and its chief executive, Elon Musk, has made similar claims about AI ending scarcity. The post drew wide attention, with more than 500,000 views.
As an opinion, it cannot be checked, and it does not reflect any announcement by Tesla.
What to expect next
Watch whether Elluswamy or other Tesla leaders tie this view to concrete product plans, such as timelines for Optimus or unsupervised self driving. The debate over whether AI will bring broad abundance or concentrate gains will continue, and posts like this one are part of it. Also watch for responses from economists and AI safety researchers who dispute the optimistic framing.