Following his departure from the White House, billionaire Elon Musk's legacy as the unofficial head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is marked by <a href="https://futurism.com/government-fires-nuclear-specialists-hires-back">unprofessional chaos</a>, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/us/trump-administration-lawsuits.html">litany of lawsuits</a>, and a <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-conflict-interest-shutting-down-usaid">collapse of international aid</a> that left children to <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/mothers-children-dying-musk-cuts">die in the streets</a>.
His ragtag group of teens and 20-somethings, most of whom were severely underqualified to pick apart agency budgets, let alone access highly sensitive information, has left swathes of the federal government in ruins.
And what exactly they were doing behind the scenes, besides <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-doge-access-network-nuclear-secrets">infiltrating classified networks</a> and unjustly <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-cut-off-social-security">cutting people off from social security</a>, remains pretty hazy — in a very literal way.
As <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/06/02/elon-musks-failure-in-government">The Economist reports</a>, cleaners found marijuana at the think tank United States Institute of Peace that was "apparently thrown out by DOGE staffers" after they left the building. An <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/dlknowles.bsky.social/post/3lqnryot5ik2c">image</a> shared by reporter Daniel Knowles shows a pair of gloved hands holding sizable nugs of the plant, strongly suggesting that the operation's agents were getting high in the workplace.
It certainly wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, given the track record of many DOGE operatives. Who could forget 19-year-old high school grad Edward Coristine, better known by his online moniker "Big Balls," who was previously <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-doge-boy-fired-leaking">fired from an internship</a> after leaking sensitive data to a competitor? Then there was Marko Elez, a 25-year-old staffer, who <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-doge-resignation">resigned from his position</a> — but was <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/29/doge-marco-elez-software-engineer-us-payroll-00259303">later rehired</a> — after it was revealed he'd spread incredibly racist rhetoric on social media.
Just as shamefully, the schwag itself looks like low-quality brickweed, with one New York Times reporter <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/rmac.bsky.social/post/3lqnwrbai7s2c">dismissing it</a> as "sand, bro."
"Go after your dealer for fraud, waste and abuse," another user <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/theejaykirsch.bsky.social/post/3lqpjr3z5pc2y">quipped</a>, with another <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/sistersyzygy.bsky.social/post/3lqq2oaqui222">characterizing it</a> as "possibly the worst weed i've EVER seen."
In short, it's exactly the kind of clown show you'd expect to bring pot to the office. While the substance was decriminalized in Washington, DC, it <a href="https://www.acludc.org/en/know-your-rights/marijuana-laws-district-columbia">remains a crime under federal law</a> to possess more than two ounces of marijuana or consume it in public spaces. (It's unclear how much weed the cleaners found.)
Besides, their boss has a <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-traveling-box-drugs">lengthy track record of indulging</a> in both legal and illegal drugs, from a <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-drug-explanation">well-documented ketamine habit</a> to consuming party drugs like <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-elon-musk-drug-response">LSD and magic mushrooms</a> at social gatherings.
To be clear, there's nothing wrong with smoking a little pot — but bringing it to the workplace is incredibly unprofessional, underlining the kind of conduct you'd expect from Musk's DOGE boys. Case in point, in April, a senior DOGE figure reportedly <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-goon-accused-screaming-federal-214836757.html">screamed at staff</a> and forced them to work for 36 hours without rest.
Besides clearing a regulatory path for the world's richest man in the world, the culmination of the DOGE operatives' efforts in Washington, leaves far more questions than answers. While DOGE's website boasts that it has saved an "estimated" $180 billion — a tally that's previously been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/us/politics/doge-errors-funding-grants-claims.html">found to be riddled with errors</a> — critics say DOGE has been a dismal failure, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-failed-cuts-sleepovers">falling well short of the $2 trillion</a> Musk once promised to cut.
Fraud, which has long been a target for Musk and his operatives, has yet to be rooted out to any meaningful degree.
Worst of all, DOGE isn't going anywhere soon. As <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/big-balls-young-doge-converted-into-full-time-government-employees/">Wired reports</a>, Coristine and several other operatives have signed on to become full-time employees, allowing them to blow past the 130-day limit that was previously imposed on them as "special government employees."
As for what other types of contraband cleaners will find while picking up after them? We can't even imagine.
More on DOGE: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-war">"Disgusting Abomination": Cold War Between Musk and Trump Explodes Into Public</a>

Big Nugs

Getting high at work... on the taxpayer's dime.

Government Cleaners Find Nasty-Looking Brickweed After DOGE Leaves Building

As the news media continues its <a href="https://futurism.com/business-insider-ai-reading-list">often-disastrous pivot</a> towards generative artificial intelligence, the most prominent publication yet has jumped on board: the Washington Post, it turns out, has quietly been building an AI tool designed to let underqualified writers publish content in its storied pages.
According to multiple sources familiar with the plan who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/business/media/washington-post-opinion-ripple.html">spoke to the New York Times</a>, since April the newspaper has been secretly building a program known as "Ripple" that appears to be part syndication, part talent network akin to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/business/media/huffpost-unpaid-contributors.html">contributor schemes at HuffPost</a> and <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jonchristian/jayson-demers-audienceboom-forbes-entrepreneur-pay-for-play">Forbes</a>. 
The biggest difference from those prior contributor networks and this one, though, is the way the sausage will be made.
Along with partnerships with established writers, the new program will employ an "AI writing coach" called "Ember" designed to guide "nonprofessionals" through the article-writing process.
That tool will, per early prototypes described to the NYT, hand-hold aspiring columnists through every aspect of the writing process from start to finish. Its sidebar will instruct writers to devise an "early thesis," list out "supporting points," and provide a "memorable ending" — all while a live AI chatbot weighs in and a "story strength" tracker evaluates their progress.
At the end of it all, a human editor is said to review the columns before they go to publication — though in practice, similar promises have often ended in disaster, like at CNET, which promised that editors were reviewing the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/cnet-publishing-articles-by-ai">scores of AI-generated articles</a> it ran before it turned out they were <a href="https://futurism.com/cnet-ai-errors">riddled with errors</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/cnet-ai-plagiarism">plagiarism</a>.
Though the outputs from WaPo's program wouldn't be entirely generated by AI, it sounds like everything but. And in practice, as we've seen time and again, the temptation with AI is to use it not as a thoughtful creative partner but as a speedrunning tool to churn out large quantities of low-quality material, or to cook up something that sounds confident but is shaky on the undergirding facts and logic.
In other words, it sounds like the program could be poised to take everything that's currently broken and controversial about newspaper opinion sections and amplify it using generative AI.
WaPo declined to provide comment for the NYT's exposé. It's worth noting that the NYT has been putting significant resources of its own into exploring how AI can be responsibly used in journalism — but while it's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/reader-center/how-new-york-times-uses-ai-journalism.html">using certain machine learning tools</a> for tasks like finding patterns in large datasets, it's pledged not to use generative AI to write any articles.
The revelation also comes during a period of broader crisis at WaPo, with significant layoffs coming as its owner Jeff Bezos has increasingly exerted control over the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/26/jeff-bezos-washington-post-opinion">content and ideological leaning</a> of the paper's journalism.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65609965">eat your heart out</a>.
More on AI writing: <a href="https://futurism.com/business-insider-ai-reading-list">Business Insider Did Something So Stupid With AI That We’re Reeling</a>

Democracy Dies

A recipe for disaster.

The Washington Post Is Secretly Planning to Start Publishing Articles Created Using AI

After <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-owes-donald-trump-money">spending nine figures</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-support-jd-vance-trump-crush-electric-vehicle-industry">almost a year</a> getting Donald Trump elected, billionaire Elon Musk has openly declared war against the president's own Republican party.
In an <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1929984535456035202">ominous tweet</a>, Musk vowed that "in November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people" — quote-tweeting a post that seethed against "GOP" lawmakers who were "spending millions on luxury hotels" while "not voting on any DOGE cuts."
The broadside comes as the mercurial CEO has been <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-turns-on-trump-bill">raging</a> against Trump's so-called "big, beautiful" tax and spending bill, fuming that it will massively increase the federal budget deficit and undermine the efforts his so-called Department of Government Efficiency has been overseeing.
It also came after Musk torched the bill in a <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-war#:~:text=In%20a-,scorching%20tweet,-today%2C%20billionaire%20Elon">separate message</a> on Tuesday, excoriating it as a "disgusting abomination."
"I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore," Musk wrote. "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."
His fiery rhetoric marks a <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-war">major escalation</a> between the world's most powerful man and its wealthiest one. Given his latest comments, Musk is actively turning against the political far right, a major reversal given his strong affiliation with Trump so far.
The news comes roughly a week after Musk announced he would be departing the world of politics, claiming that he had "<a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-giving-up-politics">done enough</a>." He spent much of last week giving interviews about his ailing businesses, which he had largely abandoned since jumping aboard the Trump train.
Musk now finds himself in the company of several Republican lawmakers who have openly opposed Trump's proposed budget. The bill passed the House in mid-May, but is expected to encounter major headwinds in the Senate.
"I agree with Elon," senator Rand Paul (R-KY) tweeted. "We have both seen the massive waste in government spending and we know another $5 trillion in debt is a huge mistake."
How far Musk is actually committed to this newfound opposition remains dubious at best. In many ways, the billionaire has already gotten what he came for, leaving government agencies that <a href="https://futurism.com/musk-fired-regulators-neuralink">were once investigating his businesses</a> in <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-conflict-interest-shutting-down-usaid">ruins</a>.
Is Musk trying to save face and regain withered support from the political left, something that's bound to be an enormous uphill battle? Or does he see the writing on the wall, with the bill <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/one-big-beautiful-bill-act-called-a-clean-energy-nightmare-scenario/">wiping out clean energy incentives</a> that once propped up his EV maker, Tesla?
While Musk was away gutting federal agencies, Tesla was put through the wringer, with <a href="https://futurism.com/teslas-sales-continue-fall">sales falling off a cliff</a> worldwide. The billionaire has lost a tremendous amount of goodwill, torching his carmaker's brand in the process.
With Trump's bill potentially ripping up EV tax incentives, Tesla's existing crisis could soon take a turn for the worse.
As is often the case, it's impossible to get a firm grip on what Musk is trying to achieve. Is this a story of regret, of panic, or perhaps even <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-ketamine-bladder">drug withdrawal</a>?
Either way, the last six months have proven disastrous for Musk, whose cost-cutting measures are about to be flushed down the toilet with a spending bill that's expected to load on trillions of dollars in additional debt. One way or another, he seems miserable.
More on the cold war: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-war">"Disgusting Abomination": Cold War Between Musk and Trump Explodes Into Public</a>

Cold War 1

"In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people."

Elon Musk Declares Open War on Republican Party

Researchers at one of the world's leading AI labs are warning that humans may soon be little more than "meat robots" for near-future artificial intelligence systems.
During a recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64lXQP6cs5M">interview with AI podcaster Dwarkesh Patel</a>, Anthropic researchers Sholto Douglas and Trenton Bricken were surprisingly casual when fretting that the technology they're working to build may soon render us into AI-controlled androids — or, at the very least, further <a href="https://futurism.com/computer-science-majors-high-unemployment-rate">grim job loss</a> to the technology.
"There is this whole spectrum of crazy futures," Douglas, who <a href="https://x.com/_sholtodouglas?lang=en">worked at Google DeepMind</a> until earlier this year, told the 24-year-old podcaster. One such future involves a "drop in white collar workers" over the next two to five years, the researcher said — one that he thinks will come to pass "even if algorithmic progress stalls out."
Bricken, meanwhile, had more grandiose prognostications about the future he and his colleagues in the AI space are building.
"The really scary future is one in which AIs can do everything except for the physical robotic tasks," he declared. "In which case, you’ll have humans with AirPods, and glasses and there’ll be some robot overlord controlling the human through cameras by just telling it what to do."
(Yes, you read that right — this AI researcher did, in fact, refer to fellow humans as "it." )
"Basically," Bricken continued, "you're having human meat robots."
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Is RL + LLMs enough for AGI? – Sholto Douglas &amp; Trenton Bricken" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/64lXQP6cs5M?start=6977&feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Douglas quickly jumped in at that point to, it seems, defend the technology.
"Not necessarily saying," he interjected, "that that's what the AIs would want to do or anything like that."
Regardless of AI intent — if such a thing could exist — Douglas reasoned that we humans are in for a "pretty terrible decade" as the technology takes over.
Human labor will, Douglas predicted, primarily be valued upon how well we can do physical work that AI cannot, like so many Taskrabbits for the algorithmic powers that be — but luckily, we make "fantastic robots" to that end.
"That's a shocking, shocking world," he concluded. We've got to say we agree.
More on AI robots: <a href="https://futurism.com/robot-ai-heart-rate-sweat">New AI Startup Giving Robots Virtual Heart Rate, Body Temperature, Sweating Response So They Can Better Emulate Human Emotions Like Fear and Anxiety</a>

Meatwads

"Basically, you're having human meat robots."

Anthropic Researchers Warn That Humans Could End Up Being "Meat Robots" Controlled by AI

Ethos seemed like one of Austin's hottest restaurants back in 2024. The eatery rose to prominence in October as tens of thousands of followers flocked to its Instagram page, a showcase of lustrous dishes such as the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DFsShiHuRN2/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">crustless pizza ball</a> and the eye-grabbing <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DDCWIfXu8Rv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">dust mite bread loaf</a>.
There was only one <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lelalondon/2024/10/15/the-best-restaurant-in-austin-doesnt-exist/">small problem</a>: Ethos only existed on Instagram, and its seemingly impossible bites were really just AI slop. Though the intentions behind the bizarre social media stunt remain a mystery, Ethos was a huge red flag, cautioning us on the slow creep of AI into the food and beverage industry.
If it was intended as a warning, it was a prescient one. Over the months following Ethos' viral blowup, many in the restaurant industry have turned to large language model (LLM) software to roll out <a href="https://www.therestauranthq.com/operations/restaurant-surge-pricing/">surge pricing</a>, <a href="https://www.prweb.com/releases/ai-is-finally-coming-to-restaurants-mobal-launches-a-game-changing-marketing-solution-302402829.html">robo-marketing</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/taco-bell-ai-labor">employee surveillance</a>, and <a href="https://misorobotics.com/flippy/">kitchen automation</a> to their eateries — all in the name of <a href="https://www.slang.ai/post/ai-for-restaurants">saving a buck</a>.
Consider the award-winning chef Grant Achatz, who's turning to AI to do the creative task most cooks only dream of: creating the recipes for his restaurant menu.
According to a new piece of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/dining/ai-chefs-restaurants.html">tech stenography in the New York Times</a>, Achatz — several-time winner of the food industry's prestigious <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=5031146&amp;page=1">James Beard award</a> — is now using ChatGPT to churn out recipes for a nine-course meal at his Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant, Next.
The restaurateur tasked ChatGPT with taking on the role of a different imagined chef for each course, each of whom draws from an emaciated slurry of real life culinary masters to provide inspiration for their "dish." For example, the NYT lists Jill, a "33-year-old woman from Wisconsin" who "trained" under the likes of Ferran Adrià, Jiro Ono, and Auguste Escoffier, as one of the AI creations.
Achatz then instructed the chatbot to spit up recipes that "would reflect her personal and professional influences," which is a cutesy way to say "bastardize the work of some of the best craftsmen who've ever lived for a stunt."
Case in point, Achatz told the newspaper that "I want it to do as much as possible, short of actually preparing it."
While the celebrity chef and his cheerleaders at the New York Times — the piece, notably, carries the byline of the paper's former restaurant critic Pete Wells — may be impressed with themselves, many on social media find the idea revolting.
"What an insult to Ferran Adrià, Jiro Ono, and the many talented chefs who work for Achatz that have actual experience that could be reflected in a dish," wrote one poster <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/cassandra-s.bsky.social/post/3lqngs5i4g22f">on Bluesky</a>.
"They should really headline it 'Grant Achatz is out of the ideas that make people pay $1,000 for dinner, is outsourcing his work to AI,'" <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/erniebufflo.bsky.social/post/3lqnicp3ptc2q">quipped Sarah Orsborn</a>, a veteran pastry chef based out of Denver.
Achatz may have the final word on what leaves his kitchen, but the decision reads as particularly tasteless while many creatives and craftsworkers struggle against the <a href="https://www.production-expert.com/production-expert-1/ai-the-symptom-of-a-deeper-creative-crisis">widespread embrace</a> of AI for creative labor.
As recent as September 2024, for example, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/09/23/g-s1-23843/artificial-intelligence-recipes-food-cooking-apple">NPR reported</a> that AI was generating recipes that could kill you if ingested — even as tech companies ripped off the work of real life cooks to train their chatbots.
In the present day, ChatGPT is still generating recipes like "burnt lettuce soup," which involves "boiling lettuce for 30 minutes before broiling it at 500 degrees," observed <a href="https://thegabber.com/ai-recipe-fails-and-why/">food critic Morgan Wujkowski</a>.
AI "lacks common sense and culinary experience," she wrote. "It follows algorithms, not tastebuds. Often times, the results that are generated are at best, incomplete, and at worst, faulty data."
"Human creativity and intuition are paramount in recipe development, and it’s the one major flaws in using AI to generate recipes," Wujkowski continued. "AI can assist in meal planning and macros, but actual human taste testing is irreplaceable. "
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/target-ai">After Disastrous Experiments Into AI, Target Pledges to Pile on Even More AI</a>

Slop's On

"I want it to do as much as possible, short of actually preparing it."

Famous Chef Boasts That He's Using AI to Invent New Recipes

As Tesla slowly rotted from the inside over the past year or so, big name investors and higher-ups <a href="https://futurism.com/even-tesla-board-dumping-stock">publicly signaled</a> their frustration with their absentee CEO, leaving many wondering when — or if — he was coming back.
The electric vehicle giant has been slumping hard lately, thanks to <a href="https://futurism.com/wave-vandalism-protest-tesla">worldwide disgust</a> with Elon Musk's extreme behavior, Donald Trump's<a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-disemboweled-tariffs"> wide-ranging tariffs</a>, massive <a href="https://san.com/cc/tesla-ends-tumultuous-week-of-sell-offs-arson-recall-and-record-trade-ins/">Tesla recalls</a>, and the rising star of <a href="https://futurism.com/byd-tesla-rivalry">Chinese EV giant BYD</a>.
Though Tesla stock once made up the majority of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-tesla-stock-stakes-value-net-worth-2025-3">Musk's fortune</a>, the world's richest man has watch as his Tesla shares plummet in value, erasing $130 billion from his total net worth.
As such, it's no surprise that Tesla has shot to the top of Musk's <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/video/tesla-regained-biggest-asset-musk-201926865.html">priority list</a> following his "retirement" from DOGE, after an <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-scott-bessent-physical-confrontation-2079285">alleged altercation</a> with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent led Donald Trump to send him packing. (Though that unconfirmed reporting comes from the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/bannon-musk-parasitic-illegal-alien">notoriously jealous</a> Steve Bannon, who held Musk's seat as Buddy in Chief during Trump's first term.)
But in the shadow of Musk's bizarre <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/musk-rages-zuckerberg-called-out-weasel-out-of-fight">antisocial behavior</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-ketamine">ketamine use</a>, some Tesla employees are concerned about their CEO's state of mind as he makes his uninspiring return.
The worries began ahead of Tesla's first quarter earnings call in late April, when Musk made an unusual appearance at the EV firm's office in Palo Alto, California — one of only a handful of personal visits to a company site since DOGE kicked off in January.
During the visit, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/business/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-x.html">according to the New York Times</a>, the tech baron asked for a briefing on the impacts of Trump's tariffs on Tesla production  — a wild question to ask two months after Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-imposes-tariffs-on-imports-from-canada-mexico-and-china/">announced the tariffs</a>. Given the odd timing and Musk's proximity to Trump, this raised red flags around his competence, two people involved in the call told the NYT.
Just a few days later, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/business/tesla-earnings-elon-musk.html">Tesla reported</a> its profits had dipped 71 percent to their lowest point in four years, prompting Musk to declare he would begin splitting time between his <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-gaming-government-doge">DC digs</a> and his other ventures.
Musk also promised executives — <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/17/musk-someday-driving-a-car-will-be-illegal.html">as he has before</a> — that Tesla's <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tesla-earnings-cybercab/">robotaxi service</a> would save the company, blazing a trail for future revenue. "There will be millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously in the second half of next year," he said.
But Tesla faces some lofty competition in that arena, and Musk is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/03/tesla-robotaxi-launch-in-austin-has-musk-playing-catch-up-in-hometown.html">playing catchup</a> as the company nears its self-imposed deadline for live-service robotaxis in Austin later this month. That rollout is <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-analysis-robotaxi-musk">primed for disaster</a> according to insiders — a fact Musk conveniently overlooked while he was holed up in his DOGE office.
The billionaire's previous behavior within his companies is well documented. He's been <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/musk-spacex-lawsuit-former-employees-sexual-harassment-fired-rcna156854">sued by SpaceX employees</a> for sexual harassment, caught <a href="https://www.hrdive.com/news/elon-musk-workplace-culture/703298/">lambasting a wheelchair-bound employee</a> at X for his disability, and found to be <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/elon-musk-once-used-to-sleep-on-tesla-factory-floor-heres-why-5143046">performatively sleeping</a> under his desk so Tesla employees would see.
Fresh off an ego-crushing defeat and a heightened appetite for mind-altering drugs, what workplace debauchery he gets into next is anyone's guess.
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/former-tesla-robotics-boss-elon-musk-optimus">Former Tesla Robotics Boss Casually Torches Elon Musk's Vision for Saving the Company</a>

Unlimited PTO

Welcome back.

Tesla Employees Startled by Elon Musk's Confusion When He Returned to Tesla

In a <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1929954109689606359">scorching tweet</a> today, billionaire Elon Musk took aim at president Donald Trump's so-called "big, beautiful bill," excorciating it as a "disgusting abomination" that will massively increase the federal budget deficit.
It was a startling escalation in tone following Musk's <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-giving-up-politics">high-profile departure</a> from his position as a "special government employee" in Washington, DC, a six-month stint that has left swathes of the federal government in <a href="https://futurism.com/government-undo-elon-musk-doge-damage">utter chaos</a>.
"I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore," Musk, who has had an extremely turbulent on-and-off-again bromance with the president, wrote. "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."
Musk first voiced his displeasure with the bill, which is expected to <a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/economy/trump-tax-bill-debt-deficit">add a whopping $3.8 trillion</a> to an already enormous $36 trillion of debt, last week during an <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-disappointed-by-trump-big-beautiful-bill-doge/">interview with CBS News</a>.
"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said.
The outburst marks an escalation in Musk's once-cozy relationship with Trump. A clear rift has opened up between the two as Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-mistake-tesla-tax-credits">hobbles back to rule over his ailing businesses</a> once again, with a <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-black-eye-drug-claims">literal black eye</a> on his face.
The world's most powerful man and its richest one had already been exchanging blow after blow, in a duel marked by passive-aggressive remarks, proxy battles, and possibly even physical altercations within the White House's walls.
In an early warning sign in April, Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-rages-against-donald-trump-tariffs">lashed out</a> at the architect of Trump's catastrophic tariff policy, which was expected to <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-disemboweled-tariffs">hurt Tesla's bottom line</a> by throwing international supply lines into chaos.
Then late last month, he carefully set up his purported <a href="https://futurism.com/sense-elon-musk-desperation">departure from the world of politics</a>, proclaiming that he had "<a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-giving-up-politics">done enough</a>" — a <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-doge-dismal-failure">notable lack of evidence</a> notwithstanding. Many Trump officials, who had to <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-officials-calling-musk-crazy-uncle-elon">endure painful dad jokes</a> and shouting matches, were delighted by the news.
Doubling down, Musk went on a media blitz last week to attempt to <a href="https://futurism.com/sense-elon-musk-desperation">regain the appearance</a> of a tech founder who cares about the firm's day-to-day, while <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-starship-improvements-failure">making characteristically overzealous predictions</a> about SpaceX's imminent Starship test launch immediately before yet another failure.
Musk's almost year-long stint by the side of the president has proven nothing short of devastating for his businesses. Tesla, in particular, has been put through the wringer, with sales and earnings <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-earnings-brutal-elon-musk">falling off a cliff</a> as the company reckons with a tarnished brand brought on by its CEO's tremendously unpopular embrace of far-right ideologies.
Trump doesn't seem pleased with Musk's insubordination. Despite <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/30/trump-presidency-news/">telling reporters</a> that Musk is "really not leaving," his administration <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-elon-musk-jared-isaacman-nomination-nasa">kicked Musk's hand-picked candidate</a> for NASA's administrator role, SpaceX space tourist Jared Isaacman, to the curb in the wake of the latest drama.
It was an extremely surprising move, ignoring the tremendous amount of goodwill and support Isaacman had amassed in Washington and strongly suggesting an act of retribution.
Whether Musk will indeed be going "back and forth" to the White House is uncertain at best. As the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-elon-musk-relationship-64773ad1?mod=hp_lead_pos4">Wall Street Journal reported</a> last week, Musk has <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-owes-donald-trump-money">yet to make good</a> on a third of the $300 million he committed to get Trump elected.
And even a broken clock is right twice a day. A furious Musk is now railing against a spending bill that's bound to force Congress to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/03/trump-rand-paul-tax-bill-debt.html">raise the debt ceiling</a>, negating all the largely senseless cost-cutting the billionaire's DOGE orchestrated for months.
In short, it's no wonder Musk has had enough and is walking. The emerging tensions between him and the president are bound to continue escalating as the billionaire <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-mistake-tesla-tax-credits">slowly wakes from his MAGA stupor</a> and realizes that his efforts in DC have not only been a colossal waste of time, but that they've dealt irreparable harm to his business interests as well.
More on Musk and Trump: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-mistake-tesla-tax-credits">Elon Musk Is Realizing He Made a Huge Mistake</a>

Burning Bridges

"I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore."

"Disgusting Abomination": Cold War Between Musk and Trump Explodes Into Public

Using mushrooms, scientists have created a living, plastic-like compound that uses the fungi's unique properties to mold it into almost any form.
Researchers out of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, better known as Empa, have used the common split-gill mushroom to create what they're calling "living fiber dispersions" or LFD, a gel-like material that can be used as a plastic alternative in all manner of applications.
The new material's unique strength and versatility come courtesy of fibers from the split gill mushroom's mycelia, or root-like structures — a popular subcomponent used in everything from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/2020/12/mycelium-mushroom-sustainable-packaging-fashion-meat">eco-friendly packaging and textiles</a> to <a href="https://www.certifiedenergy.com.au/emerging-materials/emerging-materials-mycelium-brick">green building materials</a> and <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10853969">nutrient-dense food</a>.
In <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91572-x">most modern applications</a>, mycelial fibers are chemically treated and cleaned, which the <a href="https://www.empa.ch/web/s604/living-mycelial-materials">team says in a press release</a> results in a "trade-off between performance and sustainability."
Instead of treating the mycelial fibers, the Swiss researchers kept them whole and allowed them to grow an extracellular matrix, the "network of various fiber-like macromolecules, proteins and other biological substances" that gives fungi their structures and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27271680/">helps protect them from the outside world</a>.
"The fungus uses this extracellular matrix to give itself structure and other functional properties," explained Empa researcher Ashutosh Sinha in the release. "Why shouldn't we do the same?"
After selecting a particularly sturdy and flexible strain of split-gill mushroom, the scientists whipped up their concoction in the lab and began experimenting with ways it could be used.
Along with drying it into thin, tear-resistant strips that can be used for sustainable shopping bags, the researchers also demonstrated that their new material could be used as an emulsifier, or mixer, for food or cosmetic products. Because the split-gill mushroom is edible, that means any products made with it would be safe to eat and apply to the skin.
Because this "living fiber dispersion" is still alive, the fungus at its base continues to emit the molecules that stabilize it, making it different from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141391017300915">most emulsions that degrade pretty rapidly</a>.
"This is probably the only type of emulsion," Sinha said in the press release, "that becomes more stable over time."
As plastic waste continues to <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/ocean-cleanup-eliminate-great-pacific-garbage-patch">pollute the planet</a> — <a href="https://futurism.com/microplastics-food-supply-plants-photosynthesis">and our bodies</a> — developing biodegradable alternatives like this one has never been more important. And heck, the idea of buying products made from a living mushroom is pretty cool, too.
More on plastic: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/superbug-hospital-plastic">Superbug That Can Feed on Plastic Is Spreading in Hospitals</a>

It's A Living Thing

And it's edible, too!

Scientists Create Living Plastic Alternative

Facing rising temperatures, a spike in acidity driven by an influx of carbon, mass habitat destruction, and inescapable pollution, the world's oceans <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/study-happening-to-oceans">haven't had it easy</a>. But in an ominously literal sense, the situation may be even darker than we realized.
New research indicates that more than a fifth of the global ocean has darkened over the past two decades, with the depths that sunlight can penetrate significantly retreating.
The findings, published in a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70227">new study</a> in the journal Global Change Biology, describe a worrying shrinking in the ocean's crucial photic zones — the uppermost layer where 90 percent of all marine life, from fish to photosynthesizing plankton, reside.
This "reduces the amount of ocean available for animals that rely on the Sun and the Moon for their survival and reproduction," said study author Thomas Davies, associate professor of marine conservation at the University of Plymouth, in a <a href="https://phys.org/news/2025-05-global-ocean-darker-vital-photic.html">statement</a> about the work.
Davies and his colleague Tim Smyth, a marine biogeochemist from the University of Exeter, used two decades of NASA satellite data to model how the depth of the photic zone has shrunk between 2003 and 2022.
In all, they found that 21 percent of the deep blue had fallen into gloom, with some regions more hard hit than others. For ten percent of the world's oceans — an area equal to the continent of Africa — the depth of the photic zone decreased by over 164 feet (50 meters). In 2.6 percent of the ocean, the dusking was even more extreme, with the photic zone depth receding by more than 328 feet (100 meters). Conversely, it's worth noting, about ten percent of the ocean became lighter.
Scientists have long warned about this phenomenon. But according to the researchers, the extent of it wasn't well known until now.
"There has been research showing how the surface of the ocean has changed color over the last twenty years, potentially as a result of changes in plankton communities," Davies said in the statement.
So far, a clear culprit for the dimming hasn't emerged. The causes in this case appear more involute and disparate — but humans, from what we can tell, do share a significant part of the blame.
Sediments and other materials dumped into the water near coasts can contribute to blocking sunlight, the authors note. But this doesn't explain why we're seeing darkening in the open ocean, most prominently in regions around the Arctic and Antarctic, where climate change is <a href="https://futurism.com/worlds-largest-iceberg-antarctic-crashes-island">dramatically reshaping the environment</a>.
The authors conclude that a "combination of nutrient, organic material and sediment loading near the coasts and changes in global ocean circulation are probable causes" of the ocean darkening, they wrote in the paper.
We're only just beginning to grapple with this tenebrous trend, but the impact it could have could be catastrophic.
We rely on the photic zones for the "air we breathe, the fish we eat, our ability to fight climate change, and for the general health and well-being of the planet," Davies added. "Taking all of that into account, our findings represent genuine cause for concern." 

More on oceans: <a href="https://futurism.com/heartbreaking-video-fish-fleeing-nets">Heartbreaking Video Shows Fish Fleeing Huge Nets</a>

Sick Strange Darkness

The light goes out in the ocean's eyes.

A Strange Darkness Is Spreading Throughout the Oceans

We could be severely undercounting the number of humans living on Earth, researchers suggest.
While the United Nations has <a href="https://desapublications.un.org/publications/world-population-prospects-2024-summary-results">determined</a> that as of last summer, there were about 8.2 billion humans sharing the limited resources of our planet, a new estimate finds that figure could be off by anywhere from hundreds of millions to an astonishing several billion people.
That might sound like an alarming revelation. But as Queen Mary University of London professor Jonathan Kennedy argues in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/31/earth-population-billions-decline-birthrate-west">recent opinion piece for The Guardian</a>, overpopulation is "rarely just about the numbers."
"They reflect power struggles over which lives matter, who is a burden or a threat and ultimately what the future should look like," he wrote.
The UN's figures are based on census data and population density across a global grid. But employing a different methodology, as Aalto University postdoctoral researcher Josias Láng-Ritter and his colleagues outlined in a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56906-7">paper</a> published in the journal Nature earlier this year, the real number of people on Earth could be vastly higher.
That's because datasets in rural areas are often incomplete and can be unreliable. The researchers found "large discrepancies between the examined datasets," implying that "rural population is, even in the most accurate dataset, underestimated by half compared to reported figures."
At the same time, concerns about "overpopulation" have historically been blown out of proportion, Kennedy argued. The world's population, per the UN, will stabilize and peak around the mid-2080s, at which point, it's expected to start falling.
"That many people will put considerable stress on the Earth’s resources," Kennedy wrote, "but if consumption is managed responsibly and sustainable technologies are developed, the world will avoid an apocalyptic catastrophe."
Others, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-population-risk-civilization">most notably billionaire Elon Musk</a>, see population collapse as a far bigger threat.
"Population collapse is potentially the greatest risk to the future of civilization," Musk argued in a <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1419825607622500352">2021 tweet</a>.
Of course, there are plenty of other enormous existential threats facing humanity, from <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-wealthy-global-warming">climate change</a> to <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/professors-self-destruction-civilization">dwindling resources</a> to a devastating <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/wildlife-populations-shrunk-shocking-amount">loss of biodiversity</a>.
But overpopulation concerns often perpetuate ethnonationalism and a perceived threat of immigrants bringing the end of the "western civilization," Kennedy warned.
"They worry about their countries being indelibly changed by mass migration," he wrote. "But the cold hard truth is that in a few decades our shrinking, ageing societies will desperately need these newcomers to pay taxes and work in healthcare and social care."
"This vision of the future may be unsettling for some, but the alternative is much worse," Kennedy added.
More on overpopulation: <a href="https://futurism.com/hordes-of-tourists-are-trashing-antarctica">Hordes of Tourists Are Trashing Antarctica</a>