Elon Musk: 'Work? No longer needed, thanks to robots and artificial intelligence'

Visionary? Maybe. Provocative? Definitely. In a video conference speech in Paris, Elon Musk said that in the near future no one will need to work any more. All tasks and labours will be done by artificial intelligence and by robots .

"Probably none of us will have a job," the Tesla patron said in a remote speech at VivaTech 2024 in Paris on Thursday, Musk described a future where jobs would be "optional", and said this momentous event would not necessarily be a bad thing. "If you want to do a job that's a bit like a hobby, you can do that," Musk said. "But otherwise, artificial intelligence and robots will provide all the goods and services you want."

But what about the need to bring home the 'dough' to eat, have a roof over one's head and possibly have some fun now and then (and have the money to keep working)? For this too, Musk would have a solution. He would need a 'universal high income'. A term that we can translate as 'universal high income', not to be confused with the universal basic income (Ubi), which has been talked about for a while and which was tested in Finland after the middle of last decade, only to be abolished after about two years.

On what this 'universal high income' actually is, however, the second richest man in the world did not dwell. Nor did he hint at how this might be created and how it might be distributed.

Musk did ask himself one question, however, during his speech. In a future without jobs, will people feel emotionally fulfilled? "The question is really this: if computers and robots can do everything better than you, does your life still have meaning?" he said. This is his answer: 'I think maybe there will still be a role for humans. We can give meaning to artificial intelligence.