Elon Musk thinks we’re heading into a time where artificial intelligence and robotics change everything—so much so that money just won’t matter the way it does now.
In a chat with The Economist, Musk said that AI might outsmart all of humanity within just five years. He believes that smart machines will be able to make stuff so cheaply and at such a massive scale that the old rules of economics start to fall apart. Imagine a world he calls a “quasi-infinite economy,” powered by automation and advanced robotics.
By 2036, Musk says, nobody’ll need to work for money. People might still have jobs, but only because they want to—not because they have to pay rent or buy groceries. The idea is that everyone gets a high income just for being alive, and work turns into a passion project or hobby.
He doesn’t stop there. Musk thinks this new age of AI will make basic goods and services cheaper and cheaper, which could mean governments could start handing out direct payments to everyone, keeping society going even if actual jobs disappear.
But he’s not just painting a rosy picture. Musk admits AI comes with some serious risks. He thinks there’s maybe a 10% or 20% chance that artificial intelligence could cause a disaster. Still, he says we’ve come too far to turn back now—and honestly, even if we could, we probably shouldn’t hit the brakes.
That’s where Musk’s message gets complicated. For years, he warned that AI might one day threaten humanity itself, even calling the process “summoning the demon.” Now he seems to accept that AI’s rapid development is unstoppable and maybe even worth embracing. He’s gone from warning everyone to saying, “Enjoy the ride,” but he’s not abandoning caution—he still pushes for better safety standards and wants the top AI labs to check each other’s work before pushing it out into the world. He suggests industry insiders actually might be better at spotting dangers early on than governments.
Not everyone buys Musk’s vision. Some critics worry that all this new wealth won’t be shared fairly and that millions of jobs could vanish overnight, leaving people behind or making economic inequality worse. The idea of governments paying everyone a universal income sounds good on paper, but it raises some big questions about whether it’s realistic.
Really, Musk’s latest thoughts sum up a bigger debate: Will AI and robots create a future where everyone benefits, or just make the world even more unequal? We don’t know yet if money will disappear or if abundance will be for everyone, but Musk has definitely got people talking about how we all should get ready for a world that runs on machines.
