Musk: "Money will cease to be relevant"

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics could make working an option, and not a necessity, within five to ten years, as estimated this week by tech entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk. During a discussion at the Saudi Arabia Investment Forum, the technology magnate addressed the topic of what work and money will be like in the long term, taking a period of between five and ten years as a starting point. "My prediction is that work will be optional. That is, it will be like playing sports or video games or something like that," he stated, adding that this would be similar to the option of buying vegetables in the supermarket or growing them in the garden.

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"It's much more difficult to grow vegetables in your garden, but some people still do it because they like to do it. That's how the job will be: optional," predicted Musk, underlining that, however, until that moment, there is still "a lot of work to do to get to that point." On the other hand, the magnate predicted that money will not exist in the future due to the development of AI. "My hypothesis is that, if we wait long enough, money will cease to be relevant at some point in the future. There will still be limitations in terms of energy, such as electricity and mass; the fundamental physical elements will continue to be limitations. But I believe that, at some point, currency will cease to be relevant", Musk maintained.

"Quite a revolution"

In the same forum, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said he was sure that everyone's jobs will be "different". "The way students learn will be different, and the way people do their jobs will be different, obviously, because many of the things we do routinely, arduously or very difficult will be done in a very simple" way, he clarified, adding that this will make humanity "more productive". Speaking about humanoid robotics, Musk asserted that, while there are no "useful" humanoid robots at the moment, his company Tesla is going to manufacture them, "which will be a revolution." "Of course, everyone would want one, right? [...] And then there will be many in the industry offering products and services. That's why I say that humanoid robots will be the most important product in history, more than mobile phones or anything else, because everyone will want one, or maybe more than one, and there will be many in the industry," he said.