Entrepreneur Elon Musk believes that 2024 will greatly change the political situation in the United States, and AI will enter even deeper into people’s lives
The head of SpaceX and Tesla corporations, businessman and innovator Elon Musk is distinguished by his extraordinary forecasts for the future. However, some of them come true – for example, the visionary correctly predicted the appearance of the first humanoid robot. Xu Techs prepared Musk’s forecast for 2024.
End of the recession
Elon Musk is confident that the world is facing the longest recession since the 2008 global financial crisis. However, he believes that the decline in economic activity will end “probably before the spring of 2024.” According to Musk, such a prolonged recession will have a positive effect on the market, “clearing it of incorrect investments.”
“Recessions have a positive side: companies that should not have existed cease to exist,” the businessman noted .
Musk also explained that “North America is in pretty good shape” and China is experiencing “sort of a recession” due to real estate issues, while Europe is facing one due to energy woes.
Republican victory in the US presidential elections
Elon Musk believes that former US President and Republican leader Donald Trump will win a landslide victory in the 2024 elections. Asked whether the arrest could be the end for Trump, he wrote: “If that happens, Trump will be re-elected by a landslide.” At the same time, the billionaire negatively assessed the politician’s application to participate in the elections.
“At the end of his term, Trump will be 82 years old, which is too old to be the chief executive of anything, let alone the United States. “I don’t hate him, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and ride off into the sunset,” Musk said . He also noted that “if Desantis (Ron Desantis is an American Republican politician—Xu Techs) goes against Biden in 2024, then he will easily win – he doesn’t even need to campaign for this.”
The entrepreneur admitted that already in these elections, “there will be attempts to use AI to manipulate the public, and some of them will be successful.”
It is worth noting that Desantis used the Musk X platform (formerly Twitter, blocked in Russia) to officially announce his candidacy for the election. Trump published a post on it with a prison photo and the caption “election interference,” “never give up,” and a link to his website, which can also be regarded as the start of a campaign.
Starship launch into space with payload
Elon Musk predicts that SpaceX will be responsible for delivering 90% of all payloads into orbit in 2024, and after the launch of the super-heavy launch vehicle Starship into space, this figure will exceed 99%.
The agreement between SpaceX and NASA stipulates that the first launch of the ship with a payload will take place in 2024, and by the third quarter of the same year, Starship should make a second flight.
Meanwhile, the latest tests of the ship ended unsuccessfully, and SpaceX is still waiting for approval from US regulators for a new launch, which is due to take place later this year.
Using Optimus robots in factories
Elon Musk said that the company’s humanoid robot, Optimus, will probably begin performing “useful” tasks in Tesla factories as early as 2024.
The company expects to show the first robot, Optimus, consisting entirely of Tesla drives, at the end of 2023. The company is also working with Neuralink on a project to use Optimus limbs to provide prosthetics for people after amputations.
At the end of September 2023, Tesla had already demonstrated progress in training Optimus, when the robot learned to independently sort objects even in the presence of distractions. And in December, Optimus began to move 30% faster, bringing it closer to the average human walking speed.
Robotaxis is cheaper than the metro
Elon Musk also predicted the mass release of Tesla robotaxis in 2024, and a full-fledged self-driving function at the end of 2023 (which did not happen – this function is still in beta status). Self-driving cars will be a “powerful driver” of Tesla’s growth, he said.
Musk noted that the robotaxi will not have a steering wheel or pedals. He also mentioned “several other exciting innovations.”
Musk also predicts that the cost of a trip on such a robotaxi should be cheaper than a bus or metro ticket.
Record Twitter audience
Elon Musk predicted that by 2024 the audience of the updated Twitter (X) will reach 1 billion users per month. He explained that the growth of the audience will be caused by changes in the operation of the platform.
For example, X launched a monetization program for authors with a paid subscription, and Musk’s company SpaceX began conducting exclusive live broadcasts of launches on the site. However, the target by March 2024 has not yet been achieved.
Analogue of ChatGPT in Tesla
Elon Musk predicts that Tesla cars will be able to drive themselves in 2024 thanks to advances in artificial intelligence. According to him, the company will soon have a “ChatGPT moment.” Musk said Tesla’s artificial intelligence capabilities are superior to competitors in the field, including Google-owned Waymo.
The billionaire emphasizes that Tesla has “tremendous capabilities in the field of real artificial intelligence.”
According to Musk, Tesla’s fleet of robocars will start at 3 million units and eventually reach 10 million.
In July 2023, Musk announced the launch of an AI startup called xAI, the goal of which is to “understand the true nature of the Universe.” The team has already been joined by people from DeepMind, Google Research, OpenAI, Microsoft Research, Tesla and the University of Toronto, who worked and led the development of AlphaStar, AlphaCode, Inception, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4, Minerva.
