Billionaire-investor Elon Musk has projected a future where currency could lose its relevance and work could become a matter of choice.
Speaking alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Musk on Wednesday told a US-Saudi investment forum panel that rapid advances in AI and robotics could transform the global economy within the next few decades, reported Fox Business.
He told the audience that machines would eventually become so productive that traditional employment would resemble a hobby rather than a necessity.
“I don't know what long term is, maybe it's 10, 20 years or something like that,” Musk said. “My prediction is that work will be optional.”
He compared future jobs to activities people choose for enjoyment. “It'll be like playing sports or a video game or something like that. If you want to work in the same way, like you can go to the store and just buy some vegetables, or you could 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. That will be what work is like. Optional.”
He added that the transition to such a world would still require significant effort.
Musk argued that if robots can produce goods and services at low cost, money itself may cease to matter.
“Currency becomes irrelevant. There will still be constraints like electricity and mass, but money will stop being relevant,” he said while discussing the future economy in Washington, DC, where Saudi Arabia's minister of communications and information technology Eng. Abdullah Amer Alswaha was also present.
He repeated that constraints would remain tied to physical resources rather than financial ones. “There will still be constraints on power, electricity and mass. The fundamental physics elements will still be constraints. But I think at some point, currency becomes irrelevant.”
He said AI and robotics could also “eliminate poverty” by removing the cost of basic goods and services.
Musk has made similar predictions before, stating in October that “working will be optional in the future” and forecasting a “universal high income.”
The comments generated wide debate online. Many users expressed enthusiasm while others voiced skepticism.
“That’s a bit of a Star Trek view. There will always be some degree of scarcity,” one user wrote.
Another remarked, “Why am I working so hard to stack up all this bread.”
A third user noted, “Interesting take. If robots can produce unlimited goods, traditional economics collapses, but inequality won’t magically disappear.”
Musk, who leads Tesla, said robotics is becoming central to the electric vehicle maker as it pushes ahead with the development of its Optimus humanoid robot, also known as Tesla Bot.
He predicted that humanoid robots would soon surpass all existing product categories.
“Humanoid robots will be the biggest industry or the biggest product ever, bigger than cellphones or anything else, because everyone's going to want one,” he said. “There is basically one way to make everyone wealthy, and that is AI and robotics.”
He added that while Tesla may pioneer the field, it will not dominate it. “AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty, and Tesla will not be the only company that makes them. Tesla may pioneer this, but many other companies will build humanoid robots. There is only one way to make everyone wealthy, and that is AI and robotics.”
