In Elon Musk’s AI-powered future, money vanishes, jobs become optional hobbies, and poverty ceases to exist.
Speaking at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Musk laid out a sweeping vision of a world transformed by artificial intelligence and robotics—one where currency is obsolete, and work is no longer a necessity.
“Currency becomes irrelevant,” Musk said. “There will still be constraints like electricity and mass, but money will stop being relevant.”
He referenced science fiction author Iain M. Banks’ Culture series, which depicts a post-scarcity society where AI ensures abundance and human labor is voluntary. “That gives a sense for what a probable positive AI future is like,” Musk explained.
Musk described work in this future as akin to gardening—an activity done for pleasure, not survival. “It’s much harder to grow vegetables in your backyard, but some people still do it because they like growing vegetables,” he said. “That will be what work is like: optional.”
Musk has increasingly tied this vision to Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, which he claims could eliminate the need for human labor entirely. “People often talk about eliminating poverty, giving everyone amazing medical care,” Musk said at a recent investor meeting. “There’s actually only one way to do that, and that’s with the Optimus robot.”
He believes this radical shift will require governments to adopt not just universal basic income, but universal high income. On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk said, “Anyone can have any products or services they want. But there will be a lot of trauma and disruption along the way.”
Still, Musk insists that if managed well, AI could usher in a post-scarcity world where abundance replaces survival-driven economies.
