Elon Musk says AI is the only way to fix the $40 trillion U.S. debt crisis—but a new study says even the most optimistic scenario won’t fill the hole

In the great debate over how to address the national debt crisis, optimists suggest that expanding the economy is preferable to cutting federal spending. It would certainly be less painful.

Indeed, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has suggested that the productivity gains thanks to AI may be the only way to save Uncle Sam from his growing debt burden—$39.5 trillion at the time of writing.

Musk, also the CEO of Tesla, has long been a debt hawk, even if it meant going against President Trump on the matter. Musk told the Nikhil Kamath podcast last year that AI and robotics used on a large scale is “pretty much the only thing that’s going to solve the U.S. debt crisis.”

But new research from Brookings, authored by Ben Harris, Neil R. Mehrotra, and William Overcash, suggests that while AI-driven economic growth might meaningfully shrink fiscal deficits, it is still unlikely to bridge the gap “even in more optimistic scenarios fully.”

The suggest...