Elon Musk predicts AI-driven job loss will necessitate universal income, suggesting our future purpose may be to “give AI meaning.”
In light of employment displacement caused by artificial intelligence, Elon Musk recently reaffirmed his forecast that “universal high income” will be necessary for humanity. This time asserting that in the absence of employment, our ultimate life purpose might be to “give AI meaning.”
The most affluent individual in the world delivered the pessimistic prognosis as part of a lengthy speech at the VivaTech 2024 conference in Paris. Throughout the speech, Musk vehemently asserted that artificial intelligence would supply every product and service in the future.
“My biggest fear is AI,” the mogul said.
In addition, he asserted that artificial intelligence will surpass humans in all areas, relegating our species to the task of providing assistance to the machines.
“The question will really be one of meaning – if the computer and robots can do everything better than you, does your life have meaning? I do think there’s perhaps still a role for humans in this – in that we may give AI meaning.”
Elon Musk, the father of a minimum of ten children, expressed the possibility that individuals could pursue employment “as a hobby,” but ultimately portrayed a gloomy picture of the future in which artificial intelligence (AI) will surpass us in all pursuits, as per his prior forecasts.
Musk’s artificial intelligence company, nicknamed “xAI,” reportedly secured $6 billion in funding at a total valuation of $18 billion from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Tribe Capital.
Musk, according to a recent report by Cointelegraph, asserts that xAI may surpass industry frontrunners OpenAI and DeepMind by the conclusion of 2024.
“xAI is a new company so it still has a lot of catching up to do before it has an AI that is competitive with Google Deepmind and OpenAI. Maybe towards the end of the year, we will have that.”
In conjunction with his forecast that artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence by 2025, this sentiment suggests that he is confident his organization will be among those that have the potential to develop AI with human-level intelligence.
Noting the fact that Musk’s AI-related forecasts have not always materialized is pertinent. He made a renowned proclamation in 2019 that Tesla would produce one million entirely autonomous robotaxis by the year 2020. Recently, he asserted that August 2024 would mark the debut of Tesla’s inaugural robotaxi.