According to Elon Musk, medical degrees will soon be useless because AI-powered robots will surpass human surgeons.
Within three years, humanoid robots like Tesla’s Optimus will surpass the world’s top surgeons, according to the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla.
Speaking on Peter Diamandis’ Moonshots podcast, Musk made the case that human doctors are inherently limited, slow to learn, and prone to mistakes.
“Right now there’s a shortage of doctors and great surgeons,” Musk said.
“[It takes] a super long time to learn how to be a good doctor Doctors have limited time, they make mistakes. How many great surgeons are there? Not that many,” he added.
“So don’t go to medical school?” Diamandis asked Musk.
“Yes. Pointless,” Musk replied.
It wasn’t the first time Musk had predicted the end of human surgeons. In April 2025, he had already claimed that robots would soon master surgery, pointing to Neuralink’s robot, which implants ultra-thin electrodes into the human brain with a level of precision difficult for human hands to achieve.
While robotic surgery is advancing rapidly, experts warn that medicine cannot function without human judgement, accountability and ethical responsibility.
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