Elon Musk says AI promises wealth and great healthcare for all, but 'jobs are going to change'

Elon Musk outlined his AI vision next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Elon Musk expects AI to create a world where everyone has lots of cash and top-notch healthcare, but says jobs will look different from today."I think by far the most likely outcome is an age of abundance where we don't have just universal basic income, we have universal high income," the Tesla and SpaceXAI CEO told reporters following a meeting of tech leaders at the White House on Tuesday."When you have robots, and you have superintelligence, it means that everyone in the world can have better medical care than anyone here, including me," Musk continued, describing that possibility as "wonderful."Asked about AI potentially destroying jobs, the world's richest man replied that "jobs are going to change," but that's nothing new. He quipped that "being a computer used to be a job," but now digital computers crunch the numbers, and he doubts "anyone is pining to go back and do calculations all day."Musk also noted that AI hasn't yet caused unemployment to spike, and instead, there's "tremendous demand for people." He added that he anticipates an "incredibly beneficial" outcome for humanity from AI, a "future you would want."The serial entrepreneur joined Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, OpenAI's Greg Brockman, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei in signing a "Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities."Following a resurgence of fears of an AI apocalypse, the tech bosses behind AI chatbots, including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, agreed to develop the tech safely and responsibly.They pledged to impose "robust internal controls" overseen by a dedicated internal team, an independent external auditor or evaluator, and an independent board committee.Musk, when he's not standing next to Trump, has not always struck a massively upbeat tone about AI's potential impacts. In previous interviews, he's said the risk of AI and robots going catastrophically wrong is "not zero," and he foresees a "bumpy" transition to a bright future. "Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI," he posted on X in April.He's publicly imagined a utopia where everyone can have "all the stuff they want," as new technologies will drive production costs so low that there will be virtually unlimited goods and services. But he's also flagged the risk that if people's jobs don't matter, they could lose their sense of purpose in life.Musk has also said that if he's right about what the future holds, people shouldn't worry about saving for retirement in 10 or 20 years, as their nest eggs will be "irrelevant." Read next Theron Mohamed is a London-based correspondent on the International team at Business Insider. His coverage spans finance, investing, wealth, markets, and the economy.Theron joined BI in 2019 as a reporter at Markets Insider and rose to the rank of correspondent before moving to the Trending team then the broader International team. He previously covered tech, media, and telecom stocks for Investors Chronicle magazine and had a brief stint on the Financial Times' Data team. He interned at the Wall Street Journal in New York where he primarily wrote for Heard on the Street.Theron has freelanced for The Independent, The Telegraph, WIRED, and several smaller publications. He holds an undergraduate degree in geography from the London School of Economics, and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.Theron often covers Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, and other elite investors. He also writes about the world's wealthiest people and shares financial advice from all manner of rich and successful people.Email Theron at tmohamed@businessinsider.com and follow him on X @theron_mohamed. Tech Elon Musk Donald Trump More White House AI Healthcare Jobs Unemployment Tesla