Elon Musk tells biographer Walter Isaacson in a new podcast interview that the fizzled DOGE experiment, which the SpaceX and Tesla CEO once headed, proved there's "no way we were gonna solve the deficit from within the government."

"The only way we're going to solve the national debt is with AI and robots," Musk tells the author for a new podcast series, " The Builders with Walter Isaacson ," premiering Tuesday. "We're not gonna solve it by trying to save our way there."

Why it matters: Musk's comments to Isaacson — author of the definitive 2023 biography, " Elon Musk " — admit that DOGE was a flop, but point to the chance that some future administration will take a new stab at the problem using ever-more-capable AI.

Zoom in: Musk said the appetite to cut spending "is not there at the presidency, the House, the Senate or the judiciary.…