ROBOTS COULD BECOME THE NEXT MONEY-MAKING MACHINES.
Elon Musk believes AI and robotics could transform the global economy. But where is the real money?
$20,000 — Tesla's discussed target price for a humanoid robot at scale.
24/7 — The potential to automate work across multiple shifts.
$1M+ — A possible annual revenue target for a successful AI automation business, not a guaranteed profit.
The biggest opportunities may be in AI software, robot maintenance, automation, and businesses that use machines to reduce costs.
Would you rather own the robots or build the technology that makes them work?
I LET MY GROK BOT RETRY ONE FAILED TASK SIX TIMES. EVERY ATTEMPT WAS WORSE, BECAUSE NOBODY GAVE HIM A VERIFIER.
at 02:10 i opened the log and read the six attempts in order.
the first one failed on a single field. the sixth changed four things that had nothing to do with it.
my only feedback between attempts was "try again". that was the entire loop.
he was not stuck. he was panicking, and i was paying per attempt.
what i bolted on after that, in the order it mattered:
1. a verifier that is not the model
› a check that runs outside him and returns pass or fail. his own opinion of his work is not evidence.
2. failure evidence that stays local
› the repair gets only the line that failed, not the whole transcript. less context, better repair.
3. hard limits written before the first attempt
› MAX_ATTEMPTS, MAX_TOOL_CALLS, MAX_COST, MAX_RUNTIME. four numbers, set in advance, no defaults.
4. a stop rule for repeats
› if the verifier says the same thing three times, the strategy changes. a fourth identical try is not a strategy.
5. an escalation path
› when a limit hits, he hands the task back to me with the evidence. he does not quietly keep going.
the next task of that kind failed twice, got repaired from the evidence, and closed.
retry is not persistence. retry with feedback is a loop.
retry without it is a meter running while a bot changes random things.
"The biggest mistake in general that I've made, is to put too much weighting on somebody's talent and not enough on their personality.
I think it actually matters whether somebody has a good heart. “
—Elon Musk