Elon Musk's 'supersonic tsunami' AI graph baffles with missing y-axis

Elon Musk sparked confusion Sunday with a graph on X that appears to show AI growth over time, but the chart is missing a y-axis, leaving viewers to guess whether it represents spending, capabilities, or something else entirely. Musk captioned it 'AI is a supersonic tsunami.' When asked for clarification, his own AI chatbot Grok struggled, speculating that the metric was 'unlabeled' and instead focusing on the meme annotations 'it's so over' and 'we're so back.' The chart was later traced to a nearly identical graph posted by Paul Graham, apparently without credit to the original.

Despite the obvious lack of data, several high-profile tech figures praised the post. Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, wrote 'Many of my close friends and loved ones don't understand this yet,' and Musk replied 'same.' The incident is part of a broader pattern: Musk has repeatedly claimed AI will surpass human intelligence within five years, eliminate the need for work, and make money obsolete by 2036, but he rarely provides concrete plans or evidence. In a recent Economist interview, he suggested the Treasury would simply print money to fund a post-scarcity world. He also attacked NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's plan for city-run supermarkets, claiming AI and robots will 'deliver the free goods' instead—without explaining how.