Commentary By: Gavin Schweiger, Follow South Jersey Assistant Editor
“My prediction is that work will be optional. It will be like playing sports or a video game or something like that,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the 2025 U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in November.
According to Musk, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics may advance to the point that work would become obsolete for humans in the next decade or two.
While many have a less definitive view of the way AI is going to change work, the idea that the labor practices of today will heavily change is likely. Right now it may not be replacing us, but it’s already shaking up the way we work and think and some industries along with it.
Just like human telephone operators and the whole concept of Blockbuster, explosions of technology like the internet have always replaced traditional and analog jobs with lightning speed.
I thought the worst-case scenario for AI was that it would take the jobs of low-level employees, like those dealing with data and organization. I was under the impression that AI was more analytical and data driven. That might be true now, but with the speed of AI’s development over the last three years alone, massive workforce changes could happen.
Don’t get me wrong, not having to work sounds great on paper, but the way that it is happening looks a lot more dystopian.
Where AI May Be Going
These past few months have shown me a scarier reality. A reality where people use chatbots for just about any task possible, from helping with research and writing emails to confiding in them as friends, therapists, or romantic partners.
For now, even some of the most advanced AI services have their weaknesses, like hallucinations and biases taken from training off the internet. They are also meant for specific tasks, like understanding and generating language.
All of that could change, however, with artificial general intelligence (AGI).
AGI, unlike the current stage of AI (or “Narrow AI”), is a hypothetical state of AI where it can meet or surpass the cognitive abilities of humans across different topics. In other words, an AI that could learn to do different things it was not programmed to do.
According to IBM, “It represents the fundamental, abstract goal of AI development: the artificial replication of human intelligence in a machine or software.”
While the technology is not there yet, there’s a race for it. OpenAI (ChatGPT), xAI (Grok), and Anthropic (Claude) are working on some of the at least 72 ongoing research projects making a push for AGI (The number comes from a 2020 survey by the Catastrophic Risk Institute, so it could be different today).
Musk predicts there’s a chance that AGI could be achieved with his next Grok release in 2026, though his previous prediction that it would be achieved in 2025 didn’t come true.
It’s not a stretch to assume the impact will be higher because of the almost light-speed introduction and cultivation of AI as it already is. Since ChatGPT’s release in 2022, the entire infrastructure of Silicon Valley has morphed.
Where Work Could Go
So, in theory, while the race is on, so is the idea that “work” could be entirely changed or just removed by AI.
What that looks like is under debate. Some, like the CEO of Google Deepmind, Demis Hassabis, believe an AI revolution would be like the Industrial Revolution, where skilled craftspeople lost their dominance to factories. There was still work for people to do, so the technology shifted jobs, not killed them.
“So, like it was fascinating to see the whole of society had to, over time, adapt,” Hassabis said on Google Deepmind’s podcast in December.
Hassabis believes moving forward means finding the potential “dislocations” in a society going through AI growing pains, and to dampen the blow. Learning from the Industrial Revolution but expecting the scale to be a lot larger this time.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (ChatGPT), believes the post-AI transition is “likely to be rough,” but thinks future jobs will look a lot different than today, even with AI CEOs taking the helm.
“If you think about a version where like every person in the world was effectively on the board of directors of an AI company, and got to tell the AI CEO what to do, and fire them if they weren’t doing a good job of that…I think to people of the future that might seem like quite a reasonable thing,” Altman said on a recent podcast with Alex Kantrowitz.
The broad consensus is that AI will enhance work and change jobs, not take them away like Musk said. At least that is the case, because a life with work sounds a lot better than one without.
I Want to Work
In Britain during the Industrial Revolution, to add onto Hassabis’ example, mechanized looms and knitting frames threatened the textile workers who relied on their years of experience in their craft.
The new technology and the heightened demand for products during the Napoleonic Wars set the stage for cheaper and large-scale factory production to pressure the craftspeople. Some took their fear for their job security to a heightened level, where they broke into factories and smashed these machines.
The movement of Luddites caused chaos to the point of deadly fights with the British government.
The issue was not necessarily the technology itself, but the consequences of the technology, including displacement and negatively shifting labor practices. I would also argue the original Luddite activities were trying to bring autonomy to people who felt increasingly like they were losing control over their livelihoods.
What happens if there’s an AI that can do all the work cheaper and more efficient than human beings? If that really is the goal for the AI race, will we be displaced?
I find my work fulfilling and purposeful. That might not be the case for everyone, but there are some cases that work is good for us.
Work can be good for mental health since it creates intellectual challenges to overcome, can foster friendships, and in a balanced way, can create identity and self-worth according to an article from Psychology Today
Work also provides self-reliance, according to a 2020 editorial from the National Institute of Health arguing that work is a “critical mental health intervention.”
What we’ll lose with AI taking work is autonomy and self-reliance we get from having our own jobs and careers. With that autonomy, we lose the ability to choose what our world looks like.
Some bring up the idea of a universal basic income (where people will get a standard paycheck as a right) to keep the world going with no more jobs. But do I want to entrust my entire life and income to a company or government?
The SNAP funding crisis during the October-November government shutdown does not give me a foundation of trust, though things are always more complicated than they seem.
While the labor market is never ideal, and certainly is not today, I don’t believe work, and with it the functions of society, should be solely in the hands of these AI companies.
Having a job as a hobby or something to pass the time simply is not enough, it’s the principle that a community of people can work towards their communities and the world, in small and big ways. Our system and attitudes toward work are far from perfect, but elimination isn’t the answer.
Whether or not Musk’s dreams of optional work come to fruition, or it turns out to be a lesser but still impactful revolution, I am nervous about the prospects of AI advancing further with no opting out.
And on a simpler note, work would not be the same without people.
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