Fortune reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made a bold prediction about the future of work and money, stating that in the next 10 to 20 years, work will become optional, and money will lose its relevance. Speaking at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, DC this week, Musk compared the decision to have a job in the future to maintaining a vegetable garden today, suggesting that people will only work if they choose to do so.
Musk explained, “My prediction is that work will be optional. It’ll be like playing sports or a video game or something like that. If you want to work, [it’s] 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, and some people still do it because they like growing vegetables.”
Musk attributes this future of optional work to the rise of millions of robots in the workforce, capable of ushering in a wave of enhanced productivity. The tech mogul, worth approximately $470 billion, has been working on consolidating his sprawling business interests into his broader vision of an AI-fueled, robotic-powered future. This includes his goal of having 80 percent of Tesla’s value come from his Optimus robots, despite continuous production delays for the humanoid bots and the departure of key executives.
While Musk treats his vision of an automated future as a tech utopia, many others are concerned about the potential displacement of entry-level jobs by AI, which may be contributing to Gen Z’s job market woes and flatlining income growth. However, Musk believes that in his job-voluntary future, money will no longer be an issue. He draws inspiration from Iain M. Banks’ Culture series of science fiction novels, which depict a post-scarcity world filled with superintelligent AI beings and no traditional jobs.
Musk remarked, “In those books, money doesn’t exist. It’s kind of interesting. And 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 Viva Technology 2024, Musk suggested that “universal high income” would sustain a world without necessary work, though he did not offer details on how this system would function. His reasoning aligns with that of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has advocated for universal basic income, or regular unconditional payments given to individuals, usually by the government.
Read more at Fortune here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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