Elon Musk says artificial intelligence has already advanced far enough to replace a massive share of white-collar work, creating an unavoidable competitive divide between companies that fully adopt AI and those that do not.
In a new interview with Peter Diamandis, Elon Musk says the displacement is no longer theoretical but applicable today.
“So even with AI at its current state, I’d say you’re pretty close to being able to replace half of all jobs, of all white-collar jobs.”
Musk says the exposure extends well beyond corporate offices, noting that physical constraints are today’s limit.
“That includes anything like education, too. So anything that involves information. And anything short of shaping atoms, AI can do probably half or more of those jobs right now.”
According to Musk, competitive pressure will force adoption regardless of individual company preferences.
“And there actually has to be a company that makes more use of AI that competes with a company that makes less use of AI, creating a forcing function for increased use of AI.”
To explain the dynamic, Musk points to a historical analogy.
“Being a computer was a job. You would compute numbers. It didn’t used to be a machine. It used to be a job description. And you can look online, there are these pictures where there were just buildings full of people just at desks doing calculations.”
That labor, he says, has already been eclipsed.
“Now, one laptop with a spreadsheet can outperform a skyscraper of several hundred people doing calculations.”
Musk emphasizes that partial automation is not enough to stay competitive.
“Now, if even a few cells in that spreadsheet were done manually, you would not be able to compete with a spreadsheet that was entirely a computer.”
He says the same principle now applies to companies themselves.
“What this means is that companies that are entirely AI will demolish companies that are not. It won’t be a contest.”
Musk appears to be echoing the views previously expressed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Box chief executive Aaron Levie. Last year, Amodei grabbed headlines after saying that AI would wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in a few years.
Meanwhile, Levie said that a new type of company will emerge that entirely uses AI from the start to compete against traditional firms.
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