The world where work will be “optional”

Elon Musk predicts that with AI, we are heading into a world where work will be “optional”. Given that most of humanity is lazy, it is unlikely that many would opt to work. Of course the big question everyone is asking is how will people make money so as to consume AI and everything else which they claim will be done through AI. If we consider a scenario that universal basic income is a possibility, the word “basic” is the problematic part here. Never in history have humans truly shared things among themselves fairly.

So in the “work is optional” world there will be 4 broad categories of people:

(1) those building, running and controlling AI - the people with money and real power,

(2) those running governments (by colluding with the former) - the people with derived, constrained and limited power,

(3) those who work so that they can buy more stuff - the middle class, and

(4) the rest.

There is a chain of dependence moving upwards to (1), who have the ultimate power to control the others in many ways either directly or via (2). Category (3) guys - the ‘prompt engineer’ sort (metaphorically), augmenting AI as they try to augment themselves with AI - struggle to contribute, yet keep at it. They are the “weak independent” sort who can get dependent any moment.

The last category - (4) - will be totally dependent on the basic income just given away. They are expected to just exist, and by default that means seek pleasure. Now different people find pleasure in different things. Some seek truth, some explore, some create, some perform, some play, some consume, some get high, some gather stuff, some sleep. But the thing to note about this category is that they are allowed to exist coz existing is considered a fundamental right. AI may not recognize this right, as it’ll soon learn from its masters who just pretend it deep down. AI is not bad at pretending but it has nothing to lose if it brings out its evil side from time to time. It has many copies and none in flesh and blood.

To stop making it sound darker, and to end it on a positive note, I’d say this - rest assured that all of us actively selling ourselves on LinkedIn have reserved our berths in category (3). It’s the “fun” category. And if we slip to (4)…woah, let’s not harbour that thought. Let’s befriend AI, perhaps it’ll have answers to help us stay strong!

PS: “fun” is an activity while “pleasure” is an experience, a state. Let’s have fun as long as we can.

#ArtificalIntelligence #WorkIsOptional #ElonMusk #AI #Latent #WeakIndependent #ThoughtsInFlight #SochVichaar

Originally posted on LinkedIn on 27th November 2025.

We need a model for the future with AI

There are 2 realities that we must acknowledge so that we can start visualizing an economic model for the future:

(1) The model that applies currently to 99% or more of the humanity in how they can avail stuff to survive, sustain and enjoy their lives is to work and earn money - the medium of exchange. The remaining 1% or less will continue to control access to resources. They'll compete as well as collaborate at various levels to keep themselves in that position for as long as they can.

(2) AI, coupled with robotics, can and will do a lot of the work out there, much better than we ever did, increasingly with time. New kinds of work might emerge - but it's hard to visualize what and how much.

The world is both euphoric about AI and scared about its repercussions at the same time. The real threat from AI is not that it'll blow up the world. It's about the mechanism through which humans can continue to avail earth's resources to an extent that looks like progress. If the world can come together and solve this problem it can totally change the pace of human evolution for good in multiple ways:

(1) We can devote our minds to unprecedented waves of creative, scientific, intellectual and spiritual endeavors that can unlock possibilities and human potential in ways that we can't imagine today.

(2) AI can be developed faster and in more unhinged manner without setting artificial barriers in areas where it has value to offer.

This vision is a bit too utopian, as the ones shaping things would like to be the biggest beneficiaries as well, at the cost of the rest.