Yet another Silicon Valley billionaire has just predicted that most jobs will be replaced by AI—whether you work on a farm or in sales.

“I estimate that 80% of 80% of all jobs, maybe more, can be done by an AI,” famed investor and entrepreneur Vinod Khosla has warned. 

“Be it primary care doctors, psychiatrists, sales people, oncologists, farm workers or assembly line workers, structural engineers, chip designers, you name it.”
Khosla cofounded Sun Microsystems in 1982, before investing in Netscape, the earliest widely-used browser, Amazon, Google and more recently invested in OpenAI. 

In a lengthy blog post, he detailed how he has spent that past four decades studying disruptive tech and has come to the conclusion that AI will reduce the need for human labor because it will do most jobs better, faster and cheaper.

To avoid “economic dystopia” where “wealth gets increasingly concentrated at the top while both intellectual and physical work gets devalued” resulting in mass unemployment on a global scale, he points to one solution: Universal basic income (UBI).

“AI could create a world where a small elite thrives while the rest face economic instability, especially in a democracy that drifts without strong policy,” Khosla wrote. 

“As AI reduces the need for human labor, UBI could become crucial, with governments playing a key role in regulating AI’s impact and ensuring equitable wealth distribution,” he added. “As AI reduces labor costs and increases productivity, the role of government regulation will be crucial in managing the distribution of wealth and maintaining social welfare.

The good news? Say hello to a 3-day week
It’s not all doom and gloom. If AI is used for good, rather than abused by those in power, Khosla wrote that it has the potential to “generate more than enough wealth to go around, and everyone will be better off than in a world without it.”

For those who are still in jobs, it could finally open up the possibility of a shorter week.

“With the right policies, we could smooth the transition and even usher in a 3-day workweek,” Khosla explained, while adding that in 10 years’ time, a million two-legged robots could have already taken over various drudge work.

The 69-year-old said that white collar workers may be first to go, but that blue collar workers won’t be immune from automation—and in his eyes most people will be happier for it.

“Take investment banking, for instance—is it gratifying to spend 16 hours a day hacking away at an Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint deck, repeating the same rote tasks?”

“Is it truly fulfilling to spend 30 years mounting a single type of wheel onto cars on an assembly line? Such jobs, like farm work in 100°F heat, represent a form of servitude, not human flourishing.” 

And in the scenario where 80% of our work is replaced by robots? Khosla makes the case for one-day workweek, where humans provide “the 20% of work we may need or want.”

“This shift could redefine what it means to be human—no longer confined by the drudgery of an assembly line job that defines one’s entire existence,” he added.

Rather than spending eight hours a day, five days a week working, people will be able to pursue hobbies, spend time with loved ones or, in Khosla’s case, take up gardening, skiing and hiking.

“Life won’t become less meaningful once we eradicate undesirable, toil-intensive jobs,” he concludes. “Quite the opposite—life will become more meaningful as the need to work 40 hours per week could disappear within a few decades for those countries that adapt to these technologies.”

https://fortune.com/