Musk: money may not matter, so study broadly

Musk's latest predictions build on years of similar forecasts, but with a notable shift: he has kept pushing back the timeline for when an "age of abundance" might arrive. Now he says one billion humanoid robots will exist no later than the next decade. That vision is central to Tesla, where robotics features in his $1 trillion pay package — which includes a goal of delivering 1 million humanoid robots. The Optimus program, however, has faced challenges as Tesla works to develop and scale the robot.

The education advice follows from his logic about work. If robots do childcare, teaching, and elder care around the clock, and if goods and services outstrip what humans can consume, then the ability to clearly articulate what you want becomes the scarce skill. Musk argues that broad general knowledge — not narrow specialization — is what lets someone formulate the questions or what he calls prompt engineering, even as AI gets better at understanding natural language.

Musk is not alone. Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark, who studied literature, has argued against rote programming and for synthesis across subjects. Microsoft chief scientist Jaime Teevan told The Wall Street Journal that metacognitive skills and a traditional liberal-arts education are becoming more important. The open question is whether this advice holds if robotics timelines keep slipping — the outcome likely hinges on whether Optimus and similar programs can actually scale.