Billionaire Elon Musk is signaling that artificial intelligence and robotics could eliminate the need for humans to work in the next few decades, and currency will also disappear.
According to a Fox Business report, Musk attended the US-Saudi Investment Forum, where he was asked on a panel about the impact of robotics and AI on the workforce in the future, and he made a bold prediction about the future of work.
Musk said that he doesn’t know what long-term means, maybe 10 or 20 years or so, but my prediction is that work will become optional.
He said that it will be just like playing sports or playing video games, if you want to work, you can do it, like you can go to the store and buy vegetables, or you can grow vegetables in your backyard. Growing vegetables in the backyard is more difficult, but some people still do it because they like growing vegetables.
He said that work would be the same, optional, but that there would be “a lot of work” to get there.
Musk went on to say that money could also become irrelevant in the future, in a future where AI and robotics dominate.
He noted that books written about positive AI futures often don’t include money, but he thinks that if you think far enough ahead and assume that AI and robotics continue to improve, which seems possible, then at some point money will become irrelevant.
He said that factors like power, electricity and matter will still be binding, fundamental physics will still set the limits, but I think at some point currency will become irrelevant.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has been a big proponent of AI and robotics, and it has become a major focus for the EV maker as it develops its ‘Optimus’ humanoid robot (also known as the Tesla Bot).
He said he sees humanoid robots becoming the “biggest industry or the biggest product,” bigger than mobile phones, because everyone will want a “robot.”
He said that AI and humanoid robots will actually end poverty, and although Tesla will be the leader in this field, many other companies will also develop humanoid robots.
Elon Musk said that there is basically only one way to make everyone rich and that is AI and robotics.
