AI and Robots to Eliminate Human Work, Says Musk
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has predicted that artificial intelligence and robots will become so productive that humans will run out of work, forcing governments to issue money directly to people. Musk made the remarks during a conversation with XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis at the Abundance Summit.
Rather than warning that AI will simply replace workers, Musk described a world where AI and humanoid robots eliminate scarcity itself. He believes the explosion in AI and robotics will not only automate repetitive work but eventually produce more goods and services than people can reasonably consume.
Humans Will Run Out of Things to Do
"Yeah, it's basically AI and robots are going to make so much stuff and provide so many services that they will actually run out of things to do for the humans," Musk told Diamandis. "They'll just run out of things to do for the humans. There's only so much that humans can even express that they want."
Musk argued that if the economy becomes hundreds or even thousands of times larger than today, human demand would hit a ceiling while machines continue producing at extraordinary levels. This abundance, he said, will change the economic equation entirely.
Universal High Income Instead of Basic Income
Rather than focusing on universal basic income, Musk described what he called "universal high income," arguing that governments could simply send people money because AI-generated output would dramatically outpace growth in the money supply. "I do think we'll have universal high income," he said. "We're basically just issuing money to people."
Musk explained that the massive increase in goods and services would create deflationary pressure instead of inflation. "So if the rate of growth of goods and services far exceeds the rate of growth of the money supply," he continued, "then you will have deflation."
According to Musk, this deflationary environment would make universal high income sustainable, as the purchasing power of money would increase over time. The vision presents a future where human labor becomes optional, and economic policy shifts from managing scarcity to distributing abundance.
