Elon Musk’s net worth has increased by some $300 billion this year alone—more than the second-richest person, Larry Page, even has to his name. But money itself may soon be a worry of the past, Musk says, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence and robotics.
“My prediction is that there will be effectively universal high income,” Musk said in an interview released on Saturday with state-owned China Media Group. “In fact, it’s not clear to me that money will even matter in the future.”
The 55-year-old envisions an “age of abundance” in which humanoid robots do so much of the work—and produce so much—that there could ultimately be more goods and services available than humans could possibly consume. In that world, he said, robots could take on everything from childcare and teaching to caring for elderly parents, while working around the clock without the limitations of a human workforce.
And while Musk has made similar predictions for years, he has kept pushing back the timeline for when it could become reality, noting now that there will be one billion humanoid robots no later than the next decade—and they will only grow exponentially from there.
“I think it’s going to get pretty wild, like where if you want a castle, robots will build you a castle.”
Robotics is notably central to Musk’s ambitions for Tesla—and a component of his historic $1 trillion Tesla pay package, which includes a goal of delivering 1 million humanoid robots. Tesla’s Optimus program, however, has faced challenges as the company works to develop and scale the humanoid robot.
Musk’s advice for Gen Z: focus on ‘broad-based education’ so you can be an expert at talking to the robots
While a world potentially filled with millions of robots is still likely years away, Musk offered advice for young people preparing for the future of work: Don’t narrow your education too early; instead, develop a broad base of knowledge.
“My recommendation for education would be to get as broad-based education as possible, that includes arts and sciences, engineering—wide-general knowledge,” Musk, who has bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania, said.
The reasoning, he said, is simple: As technology becomes more capable, knowing how to use it will depend in part on knowing what you want them to accomplish.
“In order to know what to ask the robots for, you need to be able to formulate the question,” Musk said. “And with the broadest possible general knowledge, you’ll be better able to formulate the questions or what they call prompt engineering.”
Prompt engineering became a widely discussed skill—and even career path—after the explosion of generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, as users learned that how they phrase a request can affect the quality and usefulness of an AI model’s response. And while AI has become better at understanding natural human language—and the need to carefully engineer prompts has diminished—Musk thinks the ability to clearly articulate what you want will become even more important in a world filled with humanoid robots.
“You’ve got to convey your wishes to the robot,” Musk said. “And as crazy as this sounds, there will be so many robots and so much AI that the AI will actually be eager to hear any request that you could possibly have.”
Business leaders are championing broad learning as AI reshapes the workplace
Musk is not alone among business and technology leaders in emphasizing the value of broad-based learning as AI reshapes the workplace.
Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark, who studied literature at the University of East Anglia in England, has similarly argued that an education spanning different fields can prepare people for a future in which AI handles more routine technical work.
“What turned out to be useful is that I got to learn a lot about history and a lot about the kind of stories that we tell ourselves about the future,” he said during a conference earlier this year.
Clark cautioned Gen Z against pursuing basic or “rote programming,” instead arguing that degrees involving the “synthesis across a whole variety of subjects and analytical thinking” could become increasingly valuable.
Jaime Teevan, Microsoft’s chief scientist, echoed that the broad, interdisciplinary skills traditionally associated with the liberal arts are rising thanks to AI.
“Metacognitive skills will be very important—flexibility, adaptability, experimentation, thinking critically, being able to challenge things. Developing critical-thinking skills requires friction, doing things that are hard, doing deep thinking,” Teevan told The Wall Street Journal.
“For that, a traditional liberal-arts education is really important.”
