Elon Musk Predicts Optional Work and Irrelevant Money in 10-20 Years

In one of his most sweeping forecasts to date, Elon Musk has predicted that artificial intelligence and robotics will fundamentally dismantle the current economic order within the next two decades. Speaking at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington on Wednesday, the tech billionaire declared that work will soon become "optional" and money itself will eventually be rendered "irrelevant."


Musk, appearing alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, offered a vision of a post-scarcity world driven by rapid advancements in humanoid robotics—specifically referencing Tesla’s own Optimus bot—and AI compute power.

The End of the 9-to-5?
"I do not know exactly what long-term means, perhaps 10 to 20 years," Musk told the audience. "My prediction is that work will be optional."


He painted a picture of a future where human labor is no longer a survival necessity but a leisure activity. Drawing a comparison to hobbies, he explained, "It’ll be like playing sports or a video game... you can go to the store and buy vegetables, or you can grow them in your backyard. It’s much harder, but some people still do it because they like growing vegetables. That will be what work is like—optional."



"Currency Becomes Irrelevant"
Musk went a step further, suggesting that the deflationary pressure of unlimited robotic labor would eventually break the traditional concept of money.

"Currency becomes irrelevant," Musk stated. "There will still be constraints like electricity and mass, but money will stop being relevant."


His logic rests on the concept of "abundance." If AI and robots can produce goods and services at a near-zero marginal cost, the price of living would ostensibly plummet, potentially eliminating poverty. "There is basically one way to make everyone wealthy, and that is AI and robotics," he claimed, predicting that humanoid robots would eventually become "the biggest industry ever," surpassing the smartphone market.



A Contrast in Visions
While Musk forecasted a radical societal shift, his co-panelist, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, offered a slightly more grounded perspective. Huang, whose chips are currently fueling the very AI boom Musk speaks of, noted that while AI will change how people work, it may not eliminate the need for it entirely.

"Everybody’s jobs will be different," Huang said, suggesting that AI would automate the mundane and arduous parts of labor rather than rendering humans obsolete overnight.

Musk referenced the sci-fi "Culture" series by Iain Banks—a depiction of a symbiotic society of humans and machines living in post-scarcity abundance—as the "probable positive AI future" he is envisioning. However, he acknowledged that reaching this utopia would require significant effort and likely cause massive short-term disruption.