Last week, in an interview with Rishi Sunak (which isn’t even the oddest part of this story), Elon Musk shared a prediction that one day AI may see an end to the world of paid work for humans. Describing robotic inventions and speed and intelligence well beyond our own, Musk said: “We are seeing the most disruptive force in history. There will come a point where no job is needed – you can have a job if you want one for personal satisfaction but AI will do everything.”
I had a truly visceral reaction – what can only be described as existential panic – to this story. This wasn’t just because he also shared a prediction about humanoid robots that could chase people up trees, but because I started to imagine what life would be without work and it truly scared me.
I was surprised by the strength of my reaction, because – like many of you – I have fantasised about a work-free life (59% of you told us in our Working Ambition survey with Google that you’d give up work if money was not an issue), especially when the demands of keeping all the balls in the air feels a bit too much. But it was a stark reminder that work is so much more than a way to pay the bills (although essentially it is that too). Work gives us a sense of purpose, satisfaction and accomplishment, creates community and social bonds, feeds curiosity and growth and – perhaps the most discombobulating of all my thoughts – demands that we structure our time in a certain way to be productive, preventing days and nights, weeks and weekends (would they even exist?) from merging into one.
That for me is motivation to make each minute we spend at work count. Whether you work full-time, part-time, are on a career break or are considering ripping it all up to start anew, we have a chance to find meaning in our work in a way that no robot ever could. So use this email, dig into our content and events, and make investing in your career an act of self-care. Most importantly, let’s use AI to help us – not replace us – and build the workplace of the future that really works for us.
