Elon Musk says Tesla Optimus robot will ‘eliminate poverty,’ provide ‘amazing medical care’

"People often talk about eliminating poverty, giving everyone amazing medical care," Musk said at the Thursday shareholder event. "There's actually only one way to do that, and that's with the Optimus robot."

He later added, "Optimus will actually eliminate poverty." Part of the goals to get the pay package is for Tesla to sell one million Optimus robots over the next 10 years.

Musk, in the speech, said that Optimus robots, and humanoid robots in general, will increase the global economy by a factor of 10, or even 100. According to Business Insider, on Tesla's earnings call, the Tesla founder talked about having a world of "sustainable abundance," which is a goal of Tesla's Master Plan Part IV, with the humanoid robot being the leading factor. Musk said that the robot will be able to have five times the productivity of a human.

"There's limit to how much AI can do in terms of enhancing the productivity of humans, but there is not really a limit to AI that is embodied," Musk said. The topic of "sustainable abundance" also came up in Musk's interview with Joe Rogan, where he told the podcast host, "I came to the conclusion that the only way that the only way to get us out of the debt crisis and to prevent America from going bankrupt is AI and robotics."

"We'll have, in a benign scenario, universal high income," Musk said. "Anyone can have any products or services that they want. But there will be a lot of trauma and disruption along the way."