Elon Musk has perhaps been the most bullish on AI’s potential to reshape the world, predicting that work will eventually become optional, goods and services will become abundant, and money could become irrelevant as AI drives toward a “universal high income.” But fellow billionaire Michael Saylor isn’t quite buying it.
“Everybody doesn’t get a Hampton’s house. Everybody doesn’t get their own private jet. They don’t get their own private yacht,” Saylor said in a Diary of a CEO interview published last week after being asked by host Steven Bartlett if he agreed with Musk’s AI predictions.
While Saylor—founder of software firm Strategy, which has made Bitcoin central to its business—agreed that AI could make life’s necessities dramatically cheaper, or even free, the 61-year-old argued it won’t eliminate money’s value altogether.
As basic goods become abundant, he said, people will simply shift their spending toward scarcer goods that confer wealth and status.
“If I give you universal healthcare, people want private healthcare. If I give everybody a house, someone’s going to want a house twice as big,” Saylor, who has a net worth of $3.3 billion, said. “Everybody’s always going to have a reason to want something more because we’re status-oriented animals. That’s the cynical way to look at it.”
