Elon Musk's new 'AI warning' on Joe Rogan show: ‘There will be a lot of trauma and..’

Elon Musk, CEO of xAI and Tesla, has once again issued a warning on AI-led future. He has predicted a future where physical work becomes largely optional due to artificial intelligence (AI), but warned that the transition will be marked by “a lot of trauma and disruption.” Speaking recently on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Musk likened the coming shift in office work to the pre-computer age, when workers manually performed calculations that are now handled instantly by machines.

‘AI Is the Supersonic Tsunami’

Musk asserted that AI is already, and will continue to, replace desk jobs that are digitally centric, and the pace of this change will accelerate.


“Anything that is digital, which is just someone at a computer doing something, AI is going to take over those jobs like lightning,” Musk said, adding “It's just happening. Like I said, AI is the supersonic tsunami.”

He explained that although demand for jobs will remain high, they will not be the same jobs currently available. This process, he argued, has occurred throughout modern history.

“Anything that's physically moving atoms, like cooking food or farming, anything that's physical, those jobs will exist for a much longer time,” he said.

Musk predicts universal high income but at a cost

Musk stated he remains bullish on the long-term benefits of AI, assuming a “benign scenario” where a “Terminator-esque scenario” is avoided. In his ideal future, wealth will be accessible to nearly everyone, leading to a state he called “universal high income,” not just universal basic income.

“Ultimately, working will be optional because you'll have robots plus AI,” he said.

“And we'll have, in a benign scenario, universal high income, meaning anyone can have any products or services that they want, but there will be a lot of trauma and disruption along the way,” he added.