Elon Musk has asserted that medical degrees may soon become obsolete, as AI-powered robots are expected to surpass human surgeons in performance.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO claimed that humanoid robots like Tesla’s Optimus will outperform the world’s best surgeons within three years.
Speaking on the Moonshots podcast hosted by Peter Diamandis, Musk argued that human doctors are slow to train, prone to error, and fundamentally limited.
“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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