Experts are urging people to stick with their financial plans despite Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's claim that artificial intelligence will eliminate the need to save for retirement.
Seven personal finance and artificial intelligence experts disagreed with the prediction, citing the risks of basing financial decisions on the outlook of someone worth nearly $1 trillion.
Here's what to know
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the claim on X in response to a user discussing their spending decisions, according to Business Insider.
"Saving money for the distant future is pointless with the advent of super intelligent abundance," Musk said.
Musk endorsed the user's outlook instead of warning about the financial risks. The user had expressed little concern about their "questionable financial decisions" on the premise that, in an abundant future, "most of it won't matter in a few years anyway."
The productivity gains Musk expects from advances in AI, energy, and robotics underpin the advice he gave on a January podcast. He argued that those gains would create enough resources that "anyone can have whatever stuff they want." The X exchange echoed that earlier advice.
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More background
Learning anything for free and receiving "better medical care than anyone has today" are among the benefits Musk predicts. His vision also includes "no scarcity of goods and services."
Musk's prediction that "conventional currency will not matter" rests on a multiplanetary economy. In another podcast appearance, he described robotics and space travel as the means of creating that economy.
Robots that can "build houses, grow food, do surgery" feature in Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates' predictions of sweeping change. He discussed those possibilities on a podcast cited by Business Insider.
Those advances raise concerns about what will happen to the people whose jobs currently involve providing those services.
What can be done?
Business Insider consulted seven experts in personal finance and AI about Musk's earlier comments. All seven agreed that people should continue saving because his prediction could be wrong.
Government checks for everyone are Musk's suggested response to job losses driven by AI. He has also acknowledged that the transition could be "bumpy."
But those payments remain a proposed response to job losses, not an established replacement for retirement savings.
People can continue setting money aside, while Musk's proposed support would depend on government action.
A warning about disruption was part of Gates' forecast, alongside his optimism about technological advances.
The next two decades, he said, would be "as tumultuous a period as there's been in human history."
Where can I learn more?
While Musk predicts a future without scarcity, AI is already affecting jobs, household bills, and investments. These stories examine displaced engineers, data-center jobs, investor concerns, and electricity costs.
• Software engineers fired over AI built OpenExecutive to replace chief executives with automation.
• U.S. labor unions are split over AI data centers and their blue-collar job opportunities.
• Meta's AI push prompted an investor backlash, erasing nearly $20 billion from Zuckerberg's paper fortune.
• AI data centers could push electric bills higher as demand strains the U.S. power grid.
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