Elon Musk walked back his previous claim that he could cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, saying Wednesday that half that amount would be “an epic outcome.”

Billionaire Elon Musk expressed doubt that his government efficiency panel in President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration will actually be able to achieve $2 trillion in cuts to the US federal budget,

Indeed, Musk suggested that synthetic data — data generated by AI models themselves — is the path forward. “The only way to supplement [real-world data] is with synthetic data, where the AI creates [training data],” he said. “With synthetic data … [AI] will sort of grade itself and go through this process of self-learning.”

Elon Musk livestreamed his chat with a leader of Germany’s far-right party, using the power of his social media platform, X, to amplify the party’s message ahead of an upcoming national election