We’ll never have to work! Elon Musk tells Rishi Sunak how rise of ‘magic genie’ AI will eventually mean no one will need a job – in extraordinary interview with the Prime Minister after Bletchley Park summit

Elon Musk has set out his extraordinary and at-times terrifying vision for an AI-led 21st century where nobody will have to work again with citizens handed a ‘universal high wage’ – but also warned that ‘humanoid robots’ could end up ‘chasing’ owners and threatening humanity.

Elon Musk has set out his extraordinary and at-times terrifying vision for an AI-led 21st century where nobody will have to work again with citizens handed a ‘universal high wage’ – but also warned that ‘humanoid robots’ could end up ‘chasing’ owners and threatening humanity.

Sat on a stage with the British Prime Minister in London, the world’s richest man admitted AI would be ‘the most disruptive force in history’ for jobs – ending the need for humans to have one. Mr Sunak disagreed with the vision, saying he believed ‘work gives you meaning’ and claimed that AI would be a ‘co-pilot’ for workers.

‘We will have for the first time something that is smarter than the smartest human. There will come a point where no job is needed. You can have a job if you want to have a job for personal satisfaction but the AI can do everything’, Musk said.

‘One of the challenges in the future will be how do we find meaning in life. Everyone will have access to this magic genie. They can give you any wish you want. There will be no three wish limit, you can have as many as you want’. And on education he said: ‘It will be the best tutor, the most patient tutor’.

The billionaire, who wore all black with brown cowboy boots, said that he personally cannot ‘wait’ for AI to do parts of his job at Tesla, SpaceX and X, formerly known as Twitter, that keep him up at night. But Musk also gave an apocalyptic warning about technology going wrong, and his jobless utopia failing, saying fairytales rarely end well and admitting there is a threat of Terminator-style robots turning on humanity.

‘A humanoid robot can basically chase you anywhere,’ the tech tycoon said. ‘It’s something we should be quite concerned about. If a robot can follow you anywhere, what if they get a software update one day, and they’re not so friendly any more? We’ve got a James Cameron movie on our hands. There is a safety concern. At least a car can’t chase you into a building or up a tree’.