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.