Elon made some fascinating remarks outside the White House on September 29 after the AI (SI) Summit, where he described AI and superintelligence leading to an “age of abundance,” with universal high income rather than basic income. Planting seeds, are we?
Reporter: What are the jobs for the future?
EM: I think it’s worth highlighting the positive benefits of Super intelligence. 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. People speak about medical benefits, but maybe it’s worth talking a bit more about that. When you have robots and super intelligence, it means that everyone in the world can have better medical care than anyone here, including me. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Reporter: Not if they haven’t got a job.
EM: Jobs are going to change. Jobs have always changed. Being a computer used to be a job. There used to be buildings full of people doing calculations, but now, digital computers do those tasks. I don’t think anyone is pining to go back and do calculations all day for bank interest rates, which is what they used to do, so I think we’ll see an evolution of roles, and as the president has mentioned, it’s not as though unemployment has increased. In fact, there’s a tremendous demand for people.
I think the most likely outcome, and it’s probably worth looking at the most likely outcome, is one which is incredibly beneficial, and it’s a future that (if you could if you could look into the future) you would want.
President Trump: Elon and I sat with President Xi the other day, he’ll take every data center that we don’t want. He would love to have every single one, because they’re smart. They want every data center because that’s great for China. Well, it’s great for us, and we’re leading by a lot, and we’re going to keep it that way. It’s going to be also very, very safe, and there’s a self policing, and there’s also a group policing, and it’s going to be great.