Businessman and investor Elon Musk says artificial intelligence (AI) will take all our jobs.
The Tesla co-founder and CEO said this was not necessarily a bad thing.
Musk was speaking via webcam at VivaTech 2024 in Paris.
The billionaire businessman said having jobs in the future would be optional.
“Probably none of us will have a job,”
“If you want to do a job that’s kinda like a hobby, you can do a job,” Musk said. “But otherwise, AI and the robots will provide any goods and services that you want,” Musk said.
According to CNN, Musk said there would need to be “universal high income” – not to be confused with universal basic income, although he did not share what that could look like.
Musk made the comments amidst employees’ and executives’ growing insecure that AI will soon replace them in their jobs.
Goldman Sachs previously assessed that AI could expose 300 million full-time jobs, with the International Monetary Fund saying the impact will be different depending on economies.
The South African-born American entrepreneur cofounded the electronic payment company PayPal and formed SpaceX, a maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft.
Musk was also one of the first significant investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla. In addition, Musk acquired Twitter (later X) in 2022.
Meanwhile in Kenya, the University of Nairobi is set to start an Artificial Intelligence school as part of the plans to create skilled manpower for the future.
Speaking on Citizen TV, UoN Chancellor Prof. Patrick Verkooijen said that the university will soon start offering the first-ever AI master’s degree.
“We gonna do that because it has this economic growth trajectory. And we have the assets for it,”
“We have the best computer science students, business entrepreneurship students and then combined with this innovation part we have something to build on for the future,” Verkooijen said.
