• 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."

• Student-loan borrowers are still waiting for the relief they're entitled to through a settlement, a new legal filing said.
• A borrower advocacy group is asking a court to enforce compliance with the relief settlement.
• The Education Department said it disagrees with the motion and is working to enact relief.

Student-loan borrowers are legally entitled to debt relief — but they're still waiting for it to arrive, an advocacy group contends in a new court filing.

The Project on Predatory Student Lending — a borrower advocacy group — filed a new motion in its years-long lawsuit to get relief for thousands of defrauded borrowers.

In July, a federal court denied the Trump administration's request to delay relief under the Sweet v. McMahon settlement, which has provided $23 billion in relief to over 500,000 borrowers. Now, PPSL says that over 1,000 members of the settlement class are still waiting for loan discharges or refunds that the Education Department "was legally required to provide by deadlines that have long since passed."

The group filed a motion asking the court to enforce the settlement and hold the department in contempt, in order to compel compliance with the settlement terms and process relief within the set deadlines. Specifically, the motion asks the department to resume weekly meetings with the plaintiffs' counsel for status updates on the processing of the relief, and asks the court to enforce penalties if the department does not comply.

The Education Department said in its response that the motions are "baseless."

Additionally, a declaration from the department's ombudsman said that borrowers still awaiting refunds are not due to department failure, but rather, that those borrowers' accounts "warranted further review."

"Although it has taken staff some time to understand all of the complexities, the current staff have been reviewing and resolving Sweet complaints since approximately April 2024 with some staff added in 2025," the ombudsman said. "They are all incredibly well-versed in Sweet complaint resolution."

A public hearing in the case is scheduled for November 5.

Student-loan borrowers first filed a lawsuit against the department in 2019, accusing it of failing to process their borrower defense to repayment applications — claims borrowers can file if they believe they were defrauded. If approved, their student debt from the school would be wiped out.

A settlement in the case was reached under the Biden administration in 2022, and while batches of borrowers have received relief, PPSL said that others who qualify are still waiting.

Have a story to share about student loans? Contact this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.