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Billionaire Elon Musk thinks the job market’s future is looking…organic?
In a post on X, Musk doubled down on his long-standing belief that artificial intelligence and robotics will completely reshape the workforce—eliminating the need for humans to work at all.
“AI and robots will replace all jobs,” Musk wrote. “Working will be optional, like growing your own vegetables, instead of buying them from the store.”
It’s not the first time he’s floated the idea that AI could make traditional employment obsolete. But the framing this time—work as a hobby, not a necessity—sent social media into a spiral. Some saw it as a utopian dream. Others saw it as Musk being Musk.
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Still, the idea of farming your own lettuce instead of logging into Slack has a certain Muskian ring to it. And it comes at a time when real automation fears are taking center stage.
Musk’s comments came in response to an X post from tech investor Jason Calacanis. He said on a podcast that Amazon would replace warehouse workers with robots—was once laughed off for sounding “hysterical.” But now he’s pointing to a New York Times report that says Amazon could cut 600,000 jobs, possibly more. In Calacanis’s words, “that’s a lowball.”
Whether it’s warehouse jobs or white-collar desk gigs, the direction seems clear: automation is picking up speed. And if Musk is right, employment might shift from being a societal requirement to something you do just because you want to.
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But his post didn’t land quietly. Replies quickly poured in—some skeptical, some hopeful, many asking: who’s going to fix the robots? Others questioned how consumers would afford products in a world where no one earns wages. Some brought up universal basic income. One person compared it to the industrial revolution, where old jobs vanished, but new ones emerged. Another framed Musk’s vision as dystopian, warning of a future where humans become spiritual “pets” of machines. And one user asked bluntly, “How soon?”—wondering if Musk expects this shift in a decade or 50 years.