AI is replacing jobs on Earth - Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk say the future of work is in Space

Future space careers: As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes the workforce, young people entering the job market are increasingly finding themselves on uncertain ground. A recent Stanford University study released last month found that AI is having a “significant and disproportionate impact” on entry-level workers in the United States, raising new alarms about how the next generation will find a job in a shifting labor market, as per a report.

But for young professionals looking beyond traditional career paths, the future might lie not just in new industries, but in entirely new regions soon.

Some of the world’s most influential tech billionaires believe that the very technology threatening today’s jobs could also open the door to tomorrow’s most exciting opportunities, ones that may take young workers far beyond Earth’s atmosphere by creating new industries from space tourism to planet colonization, as per a Fortune report.


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Sam Altman: Gen Alpha May Launch Careers in Space

CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, is already known for helping drive the AI revolution with ChatGPT. But he’s also imagining a future where that same technology paves the way for human expansion into the solar system, according to the report.

Speaking with video journalist Cleo Abram in August, Altman painted a striking picture of what the Class of 2035 could be doing after graduation.

Altman said, “In 2035, that graduating college student, if they still go to college at all, could very well be leaving on a mission to explore the solar system on a spaceship in some completely new, exciting, super well-paid, super interesting job,” as quoted by Fortune.

He believes AI’s accelerating pace will not only transform old industries but help solve the challenges of sustaining life in space, according to the report. In his view, future workers will look back at today’s careers with pity. He highlighted that Gen Alpha graduates would be “feeling so bad for you and I that we had to do this really boring, old work and everything is just better,” as quoted by Fortune.

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Elon Musk: Humans Could Be on Mars by 2028

CEO of Tesla and founder of aerospace giant SpaceX, Elon Musk, has long championed the idea of humans in the 21st century travelling to space. SpaceX, now worth $400 billion, has worked closely with NASA to advance space exploration, as reported by Fortune.

While technical setbacks persist, just last week, a test rocket for Mars was delayed, Musk remains optimistic. He anticipates that unmanned missions to Mars could begin as early as next year, with first crewed-flight taking off by 2028, according to the Fortune report.

In 2013, Musk had said that, “I’d like to die on Mars, just not on impact,” as quoted in the report.

Jeff Bezos: Millions Living and Working in Space

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos built one of the world’s largest companies with an over $2.4 trillion ecommerce and data service empire from his garage, which has increased his net worth to about $250 billion. But he says that his space venture, Blue Origin, could one day be even bigger, as per Fortune.

During The New York Times’ DealBook Summit late last year, Bezos said that, “I think it’s going to be the best business that I’ve ever been involved in, but it’s going to take a while,” as quoted by Fortune.

The 61-year-old Bezos appears confident that space travel will become mainstream during his lifetime, reported Fortune. Blue Origin’s long-term mission envisions “a future where millions of people will live and work in space with a single-minded purpose: to restore and sustain Earth," as quoted by Fortune.

The firm is popularly known today for its space tourism, the company made headlines earlier this year when it sent Bezos’s now-wife, Lauren Sanchez, along with singer Katy Perry and journalist Gayle King, to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, according to the report.

FAQs

Will AI help or hurt future jobs?
It may hurt some traditional jobs, but it’s also expected to create entirely new industries, especially in space.

What did the Stanford University study find about AI and jobs?
It found that AI is having a “significant and disproportionate impact” on entry-level workers in the US.