(CNN) — Elon Musk says that artificial intelligence will take our jobs and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
“None of us will probably have jobs,” Musk said of artificial intelligence at a technology conference on Thursday.
While speaking remotely via webcam at VivaTech 2024 in Paris, Musk described a future in which jobs would be “optional.”
“If you want to do a job that’s kind of like a hobby, you can do a job,” Musk said. “But otherwise, artificial intelligence and robots will provide you with the goods and services you want.”
For this scenario to work, he said, there would have to be a “universal high income,” which should not be confused with universal basic income, although he did not share the characteristics it could have. (“Universal basic income” refers to the government giving a certain amount of money to everyone regardless of how much they earn.)
“There would be no shortage of goods or services,” he said.
The capabilities of artificial intelligence have increased in recent years at such a rapid pace that regulators, companies and consumers still do not know how to use the technology responsibly. Concern also continues to grow about how various sectors and jobs will change as AI proliferates in the market.
In January, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory found that workplaces are adopting AI much more slowly than some expected and feared. The report also noted that most jobs previously identified as vulnerable to AI were not economically beneficial for employers to automate them at that time.
Experts also largely believe that many jobs that require high emotional intelligence and human interaction will not need to be replaced, such as mental health professionals, creatives and teachers.
Musk has openly expressed his concerns about AI. During Thursday’s conference, he called this technology his biggest fear. He cited Ian Banks’ “Culture Book Series,” a fictional utopian vision of a society run by advanced technology, as the most realistic and “the best vision of a future artificial intelligence.”
However, in a jobless future, Musk wondered if people would feel emotionally fulfilled.
“If computers and robots can do everything better than you, does your life have meaning?” he said. “I think humans still have a role to play in this regard, as we can make sense of artificial intelligence.”
He also used his time on stage to urge parents to limit the amount of social media that children can view because “they are being programmed by dopamine-maximizing artificial intelligence.”
