Elon Musk: The End of Work, the Death of Money, and a World Run by AI
Elon Musk has spent his career turning improbable ideas into companies that reshape the world. To some, the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX is an engineering genius whose ambitions have transformed electric cars and space travel. To others, his politics and extraordinary influence raise serious questions about the future he is building. Either way, the world’s first trillionaire is betting on AI, humanoid robots and life beyond Earth.
In this season’s debut episode, Walter Isaacson asks Musk about DOGE regrets, why he believes robots will solve America’s national debt, and the dark politics that have consumed his own platform, X. Along the way, Musk shares why living in a simulation demands that we all be less boring. A candid conversation about the imagination, drive and contradictions of a man determined to turn his vision into our future.
00:00 Elon Musk's Warning About AI
01:19 Can Humanity Survive Artificial Intelligence?
02:20 Why AI Must Be Truth-Seeking and Curious
04:33 Are We Living in a Simulation?
05:38 Will Superintelligent AI Control Humans?
07:00 How OpenAI and Anthropic Accelerated AI
09:15 Can AI Companies Prevent an AI Disaster?
10:31 Why Musk Rebuilt xAI
11:24 Musk Reflects on Trump and DOGE
14:08 Can AI and Robots Solve America's National Debt?
15:43 Why Physical AI and Robotics Matter More
17:36 Will AI Make Money and Work Obsolete?
18:50 Finding Purpose in a World Without Jobs
20:07 AI, Wealth Inequality, and Economic Abundance
23:16 Leadership and the Need to Be Liked
25:07 Empathy, Culture, and Immigration
30:20 How Elon Musk Gets His News
31:02 The Problem With Political Rage Bait on X
33:25 Musk's Legacy: Mars, Energy, and AI
34:08 Will AI and Robots Decide Humanity's Future?
35:30 How to Make AI Safer for Humanity
36:22 Building a Better Future With AI
Bestselling biographer Walter Isaacson sits down with Elon Musk, Dario and Daniela Amodei, Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Palmer Luckey, Fei-Fei Li and more.
Whose imagination do you want to live in? In The Builders, Walter Isaacson talks with the most consequential names in AI, robotics and tech to understand the futures they’re racing to build. They open up about their ambitions, what frightens them, how they think about humanity, and what drives them to build so big and so fast.
The conversations are intimate, charming and sometimes chilling. But mostly, they’re impossible to dismiss. Because whether or not you agree with them, it’s their imagination we’re all starting to live in.
Subscribe for new conversations with the people building tomorrow’s world.
ABOUT THE HOST
Walter Isaacson is the bestselling author of biographies of Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jennifer Doudna, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. He is a professor of history at Tulane University. He was previously CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair and CEO of CNN, and editor of Time. He received the National Humanities Medal in 2023.