Tech billionaire Elon Musk has painted an expansive and optimistic vision of the future, suggesting that artificial intelligence and humanoid robots could eradicate poverty and radically reshape the global economy. Speaking at the US–Saudi Investment Forum in Washington on Wednesday, Musk declared that with advanced AI and robots, “work will be optional” and currency may become largely irrelevant.
Musk framed poverty not as an insurmountable social or political issue, but as an engineering challenge that technology can solve. He said that AI systems, combined with his Tesla humanoid robot project Optimus, could drive the cost of goods and services toward zero, making basic needs broadly affordable.
According to Musk, Optimus represents the “infinite money glitch”: if the robots can operate 24/7 and produce many times more than a human worker, they could unlock massive productivity gains.
He argued that this surge in productivity could usher in a world of “sustainable abundance,” where poverty is “statistically irrelevant.”
Musk’s timeline for this transformation is ambitious but relatively near-term: he estimates it could take 10 to 20 years for humanity to reach a point where traditional work becomes more of a choice than a necessity.
In his view, people will still engage in activities like growing vegetables or buying from stores, but labor as we know it will no longer be driven by survival.
Perhaps most provocatively, Musk speculated that money itself could lose its central role in society. In his vision, constraints like electricity and material resources may remain, but “currency becomes irrelevant” as AI-driven productivity makes goods and services abundant.
Musk also extended his vision to health care: he believes Optimus could eventually become a highly capable surgeon, enabling universal access to “the finest medical care.”
He argues that mass deployment of such robots is the only way to provide equitable healthcare and economic opportunity at scale.
However, while Musk’s grand ideas have drawn attention and excitement, they also raise serious questions. Critics note that the technological hurdles remain very large — Optimus is still in development, and scaling humanoid robots to the levels Musk envisions will require massive investment, supply-chain innovation, and safety engineering.
Others argue that the social and ethical implications of a world in which currency is irrelevant and work is optional could be profound, touching on inequality, governance, and the meaning of human purpose.
Still, Musk insists that this robotic future is not just a fantasy, but a necessary path for solving deep-rooted global problems. “There is only one way to make everyone wealthy,” he said — “and that is AI and robotics.”
