Tech mogul Elon Musk suggested Wednesday that work will become “optional” in the future as AI continues to develop.
The billionaire offered the bold prediction when asked at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum about fears surrounding the future of jobs.
“It’ll be like playing sports or a video game or something like that,” he said. “In the same way you can go to the store and just buy some vegetables, or you can grow vegetables in your backyard.”
“It’s much harder to grow vegetables in your backyard, but some people still do it because they like growing vegetables,” Musk added. “That will be what work is like, optional. Now, between now and then, there’s actually a lot of work to get to that point.”
The Tesla CEO shared a second audacious prediction Wednesday for this AI future, suggesting money will become irrelevant.
“My guess is, if you go out long enough, assuming there’s a continued improvement in AI and robotics, which seems likely, money will stop being relevant at some point in the future,” he said.
Musk’s fellow panelist, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, provided a more measured view of the future of work, focusing on the near-term impacts of the technology.
“Everybody’s jobs will be different, I think that’s for sure,” Huang said. “How students learn will be different. How people do their work will be different, obviously, because a lot of the things that we do mundanely or arduously or very difficultly, are going to be done very simply. So we’re going to be productive in that sense.”
“If your life becomes more productive and if the things that you’re doing with great difficulty become simpler, it is very likely because you have so many ideas you’ll have more time to go pursue things,” he continued. “It is my guess that Elon will be busier as a result of AI. I’m going to be busier as a result of AI.”
“We’ll see what happens long term. When currency doesn’t matter anymore, let me know right before,” he added in an aside to Musk.
Huang, whose company supplies the chips powering the AI boom, has repeatedly argued in recent months that the technology will change jobs but not result in mass job loss as some fear.
His assertion runs counter to that of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has warned that AI could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs in the next few years.
As the debate over the future of work plays out, experts have underscored that AI has yet to show up in any significant way in jobs data and will likely take time to flow into the economy in an impactful way.
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