Artificial intelligence will result in adults earning a basic income, billionaire Elon Musk said.

AI could lead to a world of self-driving vehicles and other computers and machines that replace humans in work settings and perform virtually all physical and mental labor, Business Insider reported.

When that happens, Musk said adults, regardless of their wealth or employment status, will receive a universal basic income.

"I think the most likely outcome is one of abundance, where goods and services are available to anyone; there's no shortage of goods and services for anyone on earth," Musk told WPP CEO Mark Read this week at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. "I think that is the mostly likely outcome.

"It wouldn't be universal basic income; it would be universal high income."

He added that work for humans would be "optional."

Read asked Musk how long will it be before we see AI "really change things."

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"I think it's going to change things very fast," Musk said. "I think you'll see quite radical changes even next year and very radical changes within five years."

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, last year joined a group of AI experts and industry executives who called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI's newly launched GPT-4.

"Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," said the letter issued by the Future of Life Institute.

Now Musk is sounding more positive about AI.

"It'll most likely be good, but we want to be careful about a potential downside," he told Read of AI development.

Last month, Musk told VivaTech that AI will cause people to contemplate the meaning of their lives.

"The question will really be one of meaning: If a computer can do — and the robots can do — everything better than you, does your life have meaning?" he said. "I do think there's perhaps still a role for humans in that we may give AI meaning."

In a July 2020 post on social media, Musk said: "I'm in *favor* of universal basic income. Goal of government should be to maximize the happiness of the people. Giving each person money allows them to decide what meets their needs, rather than the blunt tool of legislation, which creates self-serving special interests. If we do a stimulus at all, it should just be direct payments to consumers."

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