The evolution of work, from the rise of remote/hybrid work models during the pandemic to today’s AI-driven transformations, is leading the global workforce toward a future where a post-scarcity economy could enable a three-day workweek. This would enhance productivity while ensuring everyone’s material needs are met.
Industry veteran Vinod Khosla recently penned his thoughts on the techno-optimism wave in his new essay titled, ‘AI Dystopia or Utopia’, along with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who wrote about ‘The Intelligence Age’, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who expanded on the ‘Machines of Loving Grace’ – all contributing to the growing conversation of AGI and the future of work.
Khosla compares this AI reality, of a post-scarcity economy, to the futuristic vision portrayed in the American sci-fi series Star Trek. The series takes an optimistic view of humanity’s future, where the reality is egalitarian and everyone’s material needs are met. In Khosla’s post-AI world, he envisions technology’s capacity to overcome material limitations, in a way that productivity increases, and scarcity is ‘obsolete’.
“With the right policies, we could smoothen the transition and even usher in a three-day workweek,” wrote Khosla, underlining how AI will fundamentally transform the way we work, albeit in a way that positively impacts all of humankind and the economy at large.
However, Khosla, just like other leaders, supports government intervention in the form of universal basic income and other policies, to ensure that this inevitable transition to a new reality is smooth and equal.
GDP will Grow Because of AI, and Not Extra Work Hours
Khosla’s essay acknowledges the dystopian premise of AI, which includes job loss and deflation, but he underlines the role of a democracy, driven by Western capitalism and strong policies, to create a world where AI will generate more than enough wealth, while building his case for a three-day work week.
“Over the next 5-20 years, it is possible that AI will create new jobs we cannot currently conceive of. But in the long haul, AI will eliminate most “jobs” insofar as a job is defined as a trade or profession one must pursue to support their needs and lifestyle,” he wrote.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, too, subscribes to this school of thought. He believes AI won’t replace jobs but will “change them forever”, suggesting that if AI would take over more routine tasks, society could shift toward a model where people work less, allowing machines to handle mundane responsibilities, ultimately reshaping the way we work.
Even JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon believes by the time the next generation enters the workforce, AI will have reduced the workweek to just 3.5 days a week. “Your children are going to live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology,” he said in an interview.
Previously, Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman at LinkedIn, predicted that the traditional 9-to-5 job would disappear by 2034. He is bullish on the gig economy revolution, where 50% of the population will become freelancers and earn more while working for “3 or 4 gigs”, than those in traditional employment.
Going a step ahead, Tesla chief Elon Musk suggests that AI will completely eliminate all jobs. “If you want to do a job that’s kinda like a hobby, you can do a job. But otherwise, AI and the robots will provide any goods and services that you want,” he said at a conference earlier this year.
“Automation actually will take away rote jobs that are frankly not that great; like they’re not that intellectually stimulating. What we hope is that humans can do more things that only humans can do,” said Garry Tan, president at Y Combinator, in an interview. He also strongly believes that in the future, $100 billion companies might operate with just about ten or fewer employees.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang completely believes in the future of agentic AI, its potential in complementing humans in mundane and repetitive tasks, and opening up a way for better, and more creative jobs. “AI is not going to take your job. A person who uses AI is going to take your job,” he said.
Interestingly, we might see a surge in the growth of the passion economy.
“We’re going to see 10-person companies with billion-dollar valuations pretty soon. In my little group chat with my tech CEO friends there’s this betting pool for the first year there is a one-person billion-dollar company, which would’ve been unimaginable without AI. And now it will happen,” Altman said in an interview, emphasising on how AI tools will soon reach a point where they can replicate the entire output of human employees.
This shift is critical and would allow entrepreneurs to concentrate solely on leveraging their most crucial competitive advantage.
Meanwhile, back home it’s all about producing Artificial Indians, not AI. The above suggestions are a direct blow to the conservative arguments that support a 14-hour workday as suggested by the Karnataka government, or the 70-hour workweek suggested by Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy.
“Performance leads to recognition, recognition leads to respect, respect leads to power,” he said while urging the youth of India to work 12 hours a day for nation-building. Many entrepreneurs in the Indian ecosystem, including the likes of Bhavish Aggarwal and Kunal Shah, subscribe to this philosophy.
AGI will Soon Change Everything
This moment in history isn’t like the ones before. Work has transitioned from the pre-smartphone and pre-social media eras, through the pre-pandemic phase, into the current agentic AI age, and towards a post-AGI future. Altman suggests that we are only two phases away from AGI.
This evolution began with the microprocessor, which revolutionised distributed computing and personal computers. The emergence of the web browsers in 1996 marked the next major shift, leading to the internet revolution, followed by the mobile platform era. Now, AI represents a new kind of revolution, not just enhancing human capabilities like the previous technologies, but multiplying brain power.
“The belief in the boundless potential of what ‘could be’ animates not just techno-optimists like myself, but entrepreneurs who know that the ‘possible’ doesn’t simply manifest—it must be brought into existence,” said Khosla.
Yann LeCun, chief research scientist at Meta AI, who is otherwise sceptical of the fast-paced timeline at which AGI will arrive, resonated with this line of thinking that AI is a technology that humans build, and there is agency to ensure that it doesn’t go rogue.
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