#03
Will AI and robots take all the jobs? What will people do?
Interviews
11
Answers
16
X posts
4
Span
2023 to 2026
First asked Nov 2, 2023, most recently Sep 29, 2026. Excerpts below are from machine transcripts with filler words (um, uh, you know) and stutters removed; … marks a cut. They are not checked word for word, so use the link to hear the exact words, or the transcript link for the raw text. Timestamps: 9 cross-checked against YouTube captions, 6 from the archive transcript only, 1 unverified caption-only. X has no link-to-time option, so X links open at the start.
How the answer evolved · oldest first
Nov 2, 2023 · In Conversation with Rishi Sunak · asked by Rishi Sunak
Q: What would your kind of observation be on, on AI and the impact on labor markets and people's jobs and how they should feel about that as they, they think about this?
Well, I think we are seeing the most disruptive force in history here. We have for the first time, we will have the first time something that is smarter than the smartest human. And that, I mean, it's hard to say exactly what that moment is, but. But there will come a point where no job is needed. You can have a job if you want to have a job for sort of personal satisfaction, but the AI will be able to do …
Oct 31, 2025 · Elon Musk: OpenAI Betrayal, His Future at Tesla, and the Next Big Thing: Grokipedia · asked by unknown
Q: We've had a big debate about jobs here. Obviously, there's going to be job displacement. … What do you think the timeline is? And what do you think as a society we're going to need to do to mitigate it if it goes too fast?
Well, you know, I call AI the supersonic tsunami. So, not the most comforting description in the world. … So now this is happening whether I wanted to or not. I actually try to slow down AI.
Oct 31, 2025 · The Joe Rogan Experience · asked by Joe Rogan
Q: Do you think there's going to be some other kind of solution that has to be implemented because a lot of people are going to be out of work, right?
I think there will be actually a high demand for jobs, but not necessarily the same jobs. So I mean this is actually, this process has been happening throughout modern history. I mean there used to be like doing calculations manually with like a pencil and paper used to be a job, so they used to have like buildings full of people called computers, where the banks would like, all you do all day is you do calculations …
Oct 31, 2025 · The Joe Rogan Experience · asked by Joe Rogan
Q: What other jobs will be available that aren't available now because of AI?
Well, AI is really still digital. Ultimately, AI can improve the productivity of humans who weld things with their hands or do things with their hands, like plumb literally welding, electrical work, plumbing, anything that's physically moving atoms, like cooking food or farming or like anything that's physical, those jobs will exist for a much longer time. But anything that is digital, which is like just someone at …
Nov 14, 2025 · Baron Investment Conference · asked by Ron Baron
Q: Is there a job that humans going to have other than just living in, you know, this great abundance that you're going to create. What's going to happen?
Well, I think there is this question of how do you write meaning if the robots and do everything. But we see lots of examples where even though machines can do much better human like athletics for example, or let's take a mental sport like chess, computers are so good that your phone not even connected to the Internet can beat Magnus Karlski easily. But yet chess is at all time highs in popularity. So really she's …
Nov 30, 2025 · People by WTF · asked by Nikhil Kamath
Q: What do they do with the other half?
Well, I think it'll actually be that people don't have to work at all. It may not be that far in the future. Maybe only, I don't know, 10. I say less than 20 years. My prediction is in less than 20 years, working will be optional. Working at all will be optional, like a hobby, pretty much.
Dec 10, 2025 · The Katie Miller Podcast · asked by Katie Miller
Q: What do you mean that people won't have to work in the future?
Assuming the current trend of artificial intelligence and robotics continues, which seems likely, the AI and robots will be able to do anything that humans want them to do, essentially. So hopefully not more than that, but AI and robotics will be able to provide us, provide all the goods and services that anyone could possibly want.
Dec 10, 2025 · The Katie Miller Podcast · asked by Katie Miller
Q: What would you do with your free time?
People will be able to do whatever they want with their free time. Work will be optional. I mean, I just want to separate out from like what I wish would happen versus what I predict will happen because people get confused about that. They think that what I predict will happen is what I want to happen. What I predict to happen is not the same as what I want to happen. If I could, I would certainly slow down AI and …
Jan 6, 2026 · Moonshots · asked by Peter Diamandis
Q: When is all white collar work gone by? When?
Well, there's a lot of inertia. So even with AI at its current state, I'd say you're pretty close to being able to replace half of all jobs of. And you know that white collar jobs. That includes anything like education too.
Feb 5, 2026 · Dwarkesh Podcast · asked by Dwarkesh Patel
Q: What fraction of the work at a gigafactory that is currently done by humans could a Gen 3 do?
I'm not sure. Maybe it's like 10, 20%, maybe more. I don't know. We would not like reduce our headcount. We would for sure increase our headcount, to be clear. But we would increase our output. So the units produced per human, like total number of humans at Tesla will increase, but the output of robots and cars will increase disproportionate. Like much number of cars and robots produced per human will increase …
Feb 10, 2026 · xAI All-Hands · asked by John (xAI)
Q: Like, do you want to actually work with them?
Yeah, the macquart project is over time Lecture will probably be our most important project because what we're talking about is emulation of entire human companies. So when you look at the most valuable companies in the world, they are, their output is digital so they don't actually make hardware. So it should be possible to completely emulate any company that where the output is digital and this will usher in an …
Jul 23, 2026 · The Economist: Interview with Elon Musk · asked by Zanny Minton Beddoes
Q: Can we turn to one other risk that people worry about?
Yes. He also said, like, I mean, Dario did dig his own grave here regarding Mythos, because he said Mythos is like super scary, terrifying. And also, by the way, we're going to release it. And then he's like, what do you mean? So I think he, I think probably in the future we'll choose his words differently.
Jul 23, 2026 · The Economist: Interview with Elon Musk · asked by Zanny Minton Beddoes
Q: So do you, are you part, do you, are you closer to Dario, let's say, in your sense of the pace at which jobs are going to be displaced?
I do think it's going to be a bumpy road because AI will be able to do any job better than any person can do that job. And that will be true very quickly of jobs that are digital or really anything that involves a person at a computer or on a phone. AI could do all of that. We'll be able to do all of that very soon. I mean, for software Engineering. We already have a situation where AI is better than at least 90% of …
Jul 23, 2026 · The Economist: Interview with Elon Musk · asked by Zanny Minton Beddoes
Q: For physical jobs, for assembly jobs, you will also need the capability in humanoid robots, which so far isn't there yet, is it?
Right. So that's why I said digital AI and then physically manifested AI in the form of robots, where the robot is more or less an end effector. It would have some amount of local intelligence, but be managed by a large AI model. And I've said many times, I think work is going to be optional. So. So I think maybe a good comparison would be gardening. You don't have to garden. You don't have to grow vegetables in …
Sep 29, 2026 · Elon Musk, Jensen Huang and Tom Brown on the AI Revolution · asked by Moderator
Q: How do you, how do you think about that?
Yeah, I mean the economic impact is positive. Economic impact has been tremendous. I mean we, there's actually a job shortage in the region and whereas there used to be quite a bit of unemployment and now it's, there's overemployment if you will. There's more jobs than there are people and the tax benefits for the community have been tremendous. I think we might have doubled their tax budget or something quite …
Sep 29, 2026 · Elon Musk, Jensen Huang and Tom Brown on the AI Revolution · asked by Moderator
Q: Maybe a year or two? Take a year or two from now?
Yeah. Well, I think it's helping people organize their lives and do better at their jobs. So I think it really will become essential, if it isn't already, for people to use AI for in their professional lives, certainly, and in their private lives. And so AI is just an incredibly helpful, useful thing. I've heard many anecdotes of AI helping people with medical issues, and in many cases where the doctor was wrong and …
In his own posts on X
@elonmusk · Dec 26, 2023
There will be universal high income, not basic, in a positive AI future. No scarcity, except that which we define to be scarce. In that scenario, everyone can have whatever goods & services they want. It is less clear how we will find meaning in a world where work is optional.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 21, 2025
@Jason AI and robots will replace all jobs. Working will be optional, like growing your own vegetables, instead of buying them from the store.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Jul 2, 2026
@chamath AI+Robots will be able to do everything, resulting in universal high income. Work will be optional.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 14, 2026
@wholemars There won’t be lines of software as we know them, just machine code
View on X ↗
Legend: Timestamp cross-checked; Timestamp from archive, not cross-checked; Unverified: caption-only timestamp; Timestamp checked against our transcript of the X replay; Unverified timestamp: from archive transcript, not checked against the X video. Report an error →