Elon Musk floats 'universal high income' to offset AI-led job disruption

Tesla chief Elon Musk has fuelled the debate on the future of work, proposing “universal high income” as a solution to job losses driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.

In a post on X on Friday, Musk argued that rapid advances in AI-led productivity would fundamentally reshape the economy. According to him, AI and robotics will dramatically increase the production of goods and services.

“Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI,” Musk wrote on X.



“AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation,” he added.

This is not the first time the owner of X has spoken about AI-led disruptions.

At the World Economic Forum in January, he said artificial intelligence and robotics could trigger an unprecedented expansion of the global economy and usher in an era of material abundance in which machines meet most human needs.

Recently, Musk said that in the long term, “working will be optional,” reflecting a more radical view of AI’s impact on the future of labour, in response to a post by venture investor Marc Andreessen.

Netizens react

Responding to Musk’s remarks, author and entrepreneur Ankur Warikoo said AI-led job disruption is unavoidable.

“I spoke about this recently on a podcast and believe that this is inevitable. People are shocked at the possibility of this outcome. In the last 200-odd years, we have been so conditioned to think of work as our dominant purpose that the concept of universal basic or high income without work sounds dystopian (and not utopian),” he said.


Meanwhile, investor Emmet Peppers proposed a new way to fund universal basic income (UBI): tax the earnings of AI-powered robots operating in the real world.


Another user argued that simply handing out money will not address what they see as a deeper human crisis.

One user pointed out that financial payouts are not a solution to the risks posed by rapid AI adoption. Instead, he said, governments must impose “serious restrictions” to prevent AI from degrading the quality of human life.