Elon Musk Warns That AI Is "Obviously Gonna One-Shot the Human Limbic System"

If tech-evangelist soothsaying was an Olympic sport, Elon Musk would be drowning in gold (assuming he could pass a drug test, of course.)

History's richest man has gone on a limb time and time again to make some truly dumbfounding predictions, like the claim that humanity will colonize Mars by 2029, or that we'll soon come to realize we're just pawns in an elaborate alien video game.

His latest brain blast is no different. Earlier today, Musk took to X-formerly-Twitter to posit that "AI is obviously gonna one-shot the human limbic system," referring to the part of the brain responsible for human emotions.

"That said, I predict — counter-intuitively — that it will *increase* the birth rate!" he continued without explanation. "Mark my words. Also, we’re gonna program it that way."

Taken together, Musk's latest missive seems to contradict itself.

Adults and minors alike are already falling into deeply personal and romantic spirals with large language model (LLM) chatbots, a symptom of a deeply alienated and lonely society. Chatbots, like Musk's proprietary xAI model Grok, are quickly becoming a salve for a world population reeling from seemingly endless waves of economic crises and social instability — which doesn't really sound like a recipe for more children.

Whether Grok, is "programmed" to increase birth rates, one-shot our gray matter — or perhaps both — isn't exactly clear.

Given that children in high-income countries — presumably the group Musk has in mind when he talks about population growth — are financial liabilities, it's difficult to see how chopping it up with Grok would do anything but further isolate users from each other, let alone bring them together.

In reality, fertility is a far bigger and more complex issue than any chatbot can hope to tackle. As far back as the 1800s, economists were identifying birth rates as an issue baked into the foundations of the capitalist economy.

As these types of societies get wealthier, the argument goes, it becomes more expensive to have kids as profits, not people, control the distribution of things like food and childcare. When those costs rise, people tend to have fewer children, leading to a paradox in which prosperity leads to population decline. In other words, Musk can't have it both ways; it's either birth rates or Grok.

That said, if anyone's limbic system is about to be one-shotted, it's probably Musk's.

While it's impossible to diagnose someone from afar, the billionaire's behavior has become increasingly troubled over the past few years, especially since thrusting himself into the spotlight during the runup to Donald Trump's second presidential election victory.

Case in point, Musk has become visibly infatuated with with his own NSFW chatbot avatar, Ani. He's been on something of a bender lately, posting or sharing weird digital thirst traps with thoughtful comments like "nice" and "Ani is ok."

It remains to be seen if his unorthodox plan to increase birth rates will pan out.

More on AI: AI Is Failing at an Overwhelming Majority of Companies Using It, MIT Study Finds