Elon Musk made a bold prediction this week, saying that most people may no longer need to work within the next 10 to 20 years because of progress in artificial intelligence and robotics.
Speaking at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, DC, Musk said he believes future machines will handle nearly all jobs now done by people.
“My prediction is that work will be optional,” Musk said during the panel. He explained the idea by comparing future work to a hobby.
“It’ll be like playing sports or a video game… Some people grow vegetables in their backyard even though it’s harder than buying them. That will be what work is like. Optional.”
According to FoxBusiness, Musk said it will take “a lot of work to get to that point,” but he believes technology is moving fast enough to make it possible.
He also said rising AI and robot abilities could make everyday life easier for everyone.
According to him, continued progress will allow machines to understand the world, make decisions, and complete long, difficult tasks that normally require human judgment.
Elon Musk says in “10-20 years, work will be optional,” due to the rise of AI.
“Money will stop being relevant at some point in the future.” 👀 pic.twitter.com/ILeL8XGBXJ
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 19, 2025
Money May Become Irrelevant, Elon Musk Says
During the event, Musk also suggested that money itself might not matter in the distant future. He said that in many books imagining a positive AI future, currency fades away.
“My guess is… money will stop being relevant at some point in the future,” he said, adding that the only limits will be real-world resources like power and materials, Gizmodo reported.
Musk spoke on stage with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whose company builds the chips powering most modern AI tools.
Together, they discussed how fast robotics is improving, especially as companies invest heavily in new machines and training systems.
Much of Musk’s optimism comes from work being done at Tesla on its humanoid robot, Optimus. The robot, also known as Tesla Bot, has been a major focus for the company.
Musk said he expects humanoid robots to become “the biggest industry or the biggest product ever,” even bigger than smartphones. He also said that many companies will eventually build their own robots, not just Tesla.
Musk argued that advanced robots could help fight global poverty by producing more goods and services at very low cost. “There is basically one way to make everyone wealthy, and that is AI and robotics,” he said.
Originally published on vcpost.com
