Elon Musk explains why money wont matter in 2036 after AI vs humanity outcome

Technology mogul Elon Musk reckons money will be rendered pointless by artificial intelligence in the near future.

Speaking to Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, the 55-year-old was initially laughed at when the suggestion was voiced between them.

"Money won't matter in 2036," he said, to which his interviewer replied: "I'm not sure that the people who bought your shares think that money won't matter in 2036!"

What came next was an explanation that couldn't be discounted, even if the notion of a moneyless society does seem a bit cold and dystopian.

Musk, who says AI is set to 'exceed the sum of human intelligence' within the next five years, asked what we as a global culture want money for.

"You want money for goods and services? Well, if that is so abundant that the robots and AI are providing more goods and services than any human could possibly consume, what do you need money for in that case?"

Tesla boss Elon Musk doesn't see a need for money in 10 years (Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Minton Beddoes acknowledged that things could realistically end up like that for us all, but her concerns are lodged in the road to this destination.

She had a follow-up question directed at Musk's position in this hypothetical future: "Do you have to have massive redistribution from people like you to the people who are losing their jobs - do you need to pay more tax? Do you have much higher taxes on capital so that you fund some kind of universal income... otherwise, what do people live off?"

His solution was for the Treasury to simply hand out cheques to everyone.

"But where is the revenue coming from? If you just issue cheques you're gonna have inflation," the interviewer fired back.

Musk went on to state: "These things were relevant in the past, they will not be relevant in the future.

"Like, inflation is simply the ratio of money to goods and services. So if the goods and services output increases dramatically, you can literally change the database. You're not going to print money, you create money in the database providing the creation of that money is less than the rate at which goods and services increase - you actually have deflation."

His subsequent prediction was that inflation won't be the problem in this futuristic financial landscape, it'll actually be deflation.

He smiled: "It's exhilarating and terrifying. If you ask me on any given day, in fact... even intraday, I've gone from exhilaration to terror regarding AI."

That's it, we're doomed.