Elon Musk predicts AI will create universal high income

Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday said that while the Trump accounts that are set to launch next year are a nice gesture, he doesn’t think saving money will be necessary with “universal high income” set to prevail in the future.

Musk replied to a post by investor Ray Dalio, who announced he was following Michael and Susan Dell in donating funds to help seed so-called Trump accounts, which are new savings and investment accounts created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for newborns and young Americans.

“It is certainly a nice gesture of the Dells, but there will be no poverty in the future and so no need to save money,” Musk wrote in a post on X, his social media platform. “There will be universal high income.”

Musk has said on several occasions that he thinks artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will eliminate poverty and the need to work, creating a universal level of wealth.

MUSK SAYS AI AND ROBOTICS ARE ‘ONLY’ THINGS THAT CAN SOLVE MASSIVE US DEBT CRISIS

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he thinks AI and robotics will lead to a “universal high income” that negates the need to work. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Tesla CEO spoke at the Viva Technology conference in Paris in May 2024, where he explained in a response to a question about whether he’s concerned about losing his job to AI that he believes the most likely outcome is that AI and robotics will eliminate the need to work.

“In a benign scenario, probably none of us will have a job,” Musk said. “There will be universal high income – and not universal basic income – universal high income. There’ll be no shortage of goods or services.”

MUSK PREDICTS ‘MONEY WILL STOP BEING RELEVANT IN THE FUTURE’ AS AI, ROBOTICS PROGRESS

Musk believes that AI and robotics will eventually make work optional, with jobs serving as more of a hobby. (iStock)

Musk said at the time that he thought there was an 80% chance that AI would result in such a situation where humans won’t need a job and will have all they need.

“The question will really be one of meaning, of how – if a computer can do, and the robots can do everything better than you… does your life have meaning? That really will be the question in that benign scenario, and in the negative scenario, all bets are off where we’re in deep trouble,” Musk said.

ELON MUSK EXPECTS AI WILL REPLACE ALL HUMAN JOBS, LEAD TO ‘UNIVERSAL HIGH INCOME’

Musk views AI and robotics as having the potential to solve the U.S. debt crisis. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

He also said that he thinks over the long term that “any job that somebody does will be optional,” and that work will essentially function like a hobby.

“If you want to do a job as kinda like a hobby, you can do a job, but otherwise, the AI and robots will provide any goods and services that you want,” Musk added.

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Musk has made other bold predictions related to the transformative nature of AI and robotics, including ones made in November that their widespread deployment are the only things that can solve the U.S. debt crisis and that “money will stop being relevant in the future.”