• J.Crew's website temporarily went down and displayed an odd message.
• It read: "JCrew generative AI Backend is healthy."
• The clothing retailer later offered shoppers 20% off due to the "technical issues."

The website of clothing retailer J.Crew crashed Monday, leaving shoppers with a bizarre message: "JCrew generative AI Backend is healthy."

Multiple screenshots posted to social media by puzzled customers showed the statement on the brand's website set against an otherwise blank, black page.

"Wtf is up with the @jcrew website," one online browser posted to X along with a screenshot. J. Crew's customer service account responded to the post shortly after, saying, "We're working to get the site back up and running - sorry for the trouble. Hope you'll check back soon!"

In an apparent attempt to make up for the odd disruption, J.Crew later emailed its customers a 20% discount code that expires on Thursday.

"We're sorry!" the email viewed by Business Insider read. "Thanks for your patience during our recent technical issues at jcrew.com. As a token of our gratitude, enjoy an extra 20% off your next purchase."

It was not immediately clear what caused the website to malfunction or whether it was related to AI. Representatives for J.Crew did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider on Tuesday.

• Elon Musk said that "AI and robots" are the key to fixing America's national debt.
• On a podcast, Musk said it would be "impossible" to tackle any other way.
• He predicted "digital superintelligence" could boost the output of goods and services by 20% to 30%.

Elon Musk said artificial intelligence and robots — not government spending cuts — are the only way to fix the US national debt problem.

Speaking on a newly released episode of author Walter Isaacson's "The Builders" podcast, Musk said his 130-day stint as a special government employee in the second Trump administration led him to that view.

Musk, the world's richest person, served as the de facto leader of the White House DOGE office from January to May 2025, where he sought to slash federal spending.

"I came to the conclusion that the only way we're going to solve the national debt is with AI and robots. We're not going to solve it by trying to save our way there," Musk told Isaacson, calling the latter "impossible."

The US national debt load hit a record $40 trillion in August and has continued to climb, according to Treasury data.

"Maybe if the president made that his, you know, primary goal, we could do that, but the problem is if you try to solve the deficit and stop wasteful spending, you make a lot of enemies in that situation," Musk said.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said political leaders in Washington are mostly unwilling to rein in federal spending enough to significantly shrink the deficit.

"The appetite is not there, and it's not just at the presidency. The appetite is not there at the presidency, the House, the Senate, or the judiciary," Musk said.

He added, "Basically, no one in authority in the government whatsoever, really, with maybe a few rare exceptions of like the Rand Pauls of the world type of thing, actually wants to reduce spending — no, they don't."

Musk estimated that "digital superintelligence" could boost the global output of goods and services by 20% to 30% — an increase he estimated could add roughly $30 trillion a year to the world economy.

"If you have robots and you get to space and can do a mass driver on the moon, then you can get to, I think, potentially a million times the size of the Earth economy," he said.

This could ultimately make money "irrelevant," Musk said.

"There will still be currency, but I think currency will be measured in fundamental physics metrics like wattage and tonnage, mass and energy," he said, predicting, "Conventional currency will not matter."

During the interview, Musk also reflected on his chainsaw-wielding time with the Department of Government Efficiency, admitting he got "carried away."

"I think I should have been more in the background and probably only had it last for a month or two, because at that point you've sort of seen most of what there is to see," Musk told Isaacson.

Musk said he should have left and "focused on AI a little sooner than I did."