Is AI coming for your job? Probably sooner than you think.
There’s been a lot of talk in the past month about how AI is dramatically changing some industries right now, starting with programming. Some of the work that used to require a team of junior programmers can now be done by machine. This isn’t a prediction about what might happen in 5-10 years. Numerous people have said it’s happening right now.
Other white collar jobs are probably next. How long before AI can do the work of legal assistants or junior lawyers? What about bookkeepers? Tax preparers? Customer service workers? There are probably lots of fields in which AI is close to being able to replace some people.
But people still have one obvious advantage. We exist in real space. We can carry out tasks that require more than typing on a keyboard. AI may be powerful but it’s also trapped in the digital world. There are a lot of things it just can’t do.
But the Washington Post points out today that our physical advantage may be coming to an end as well. The same people leading the push for AI are also investing heavily in robots, or as some of them are now saying “physical AI.”
In the utopia proposed by Elon Musk, billions of robots perform all necessary work. A network of autonomous vehicles and humanoids, fueled by solar energy, provide boundless resources. Poverty is eliminated. Work is optional…
While Musk has a well-documented penchant for overpromising, he has recast his companies to chase this future. He pivoted Tesla this year to prioritize building robots, phasing out car models including its popular luxury sedan to stand up a new production line of Optimus humanoids…
Musk has company. At least three different firms have made new forays into advanced robotics this month — including Amazon (founded by Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post); Nvidia; and Atoms, a new startup from Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick whose mission reads: “Physical automation to transform industry and move the world.” Figure, a leading robotics startup, put a humanoid robot in the White House this week that walked the red carpet alongside first lady Melania Trump.
We’re not there yet, but the people who make billions by seeing a bit farther into the future and investing in that future seem to see it coming.
“Figure 03” AI-powered robot accompanies first lady Melania Trump to a White House summit on empowering children with educational technology. pic.twitter.com/RShdfvEG38
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 25, 2026
What happens when you give AI a set of real world hands?
With the AI boom transforming office jobs at warp speed, tech moguls see a massive opportunity in replacing manual labor — upending fields that have so far been left untouched. Robot armies would be expensive to build and maintain, but unlike people, the devices would not take a salary. That has tech firms and their investors seeing dollar signs.
“Physical AI is the largest [total addressable market] in mankind’s history,” said Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum, which provides market research and advisory services. “I think Tesla is positioning themselves to be a massive winner.”
The tactic has led to a popular buzzword in Silicon Valley: “physical AI.” A Nvidia news release this month used the term no fewer than 15 times.
The advantages of robots over people for a lot of manual labor jobs are obvious. First, the robots can work all day and all night with a little time off for charging. They don’t get distracted or take long coffee breaks. They don’t need time off for family or health reasons. They don’t harass their co-workers or create HR problems or office politics. And if something goes wrong, they don’t get injured and sue the company for medical treatment.
The advantages for the company who owns a fleet of robots are obvious, but what about the workers? Here’s where you really have two very different views of what the future holds. On the one hand you have Bernie Sanders warning that AI needs to be stopped now before it make the billionaires into trillionaires and puts everyone out of work. He gave a 30 minute speech about this on the Senate floor this week. You don’t need to watch all of this to get a flavor for it. Just skip ahead to his visual aids featuring Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and Ellison.
Who is pushing AI? Musk. Bezos. Zuckerberg. Ellison.
What they want is not what working families need. https://t.co/kRJCrkV0E5— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 24, 2026
They key takeaway is that Sanders believes what the proponents of AI are saying. He sees the same future they do and it terrifies him. In his view, this is a future where the engine of the economy is taken out of most people’s hands and placed in the hands of the wealthiest people in the world. His response would be to have everyone join a union and force government to slow down the progress of AI and physical AI such that it doesn’t change the world as quickly as he believes it can. So he and AOC are proposing bills aimed at throwing sand in the gears of the AI machine.
On Wednesday, the pair jointly proposed a universal halt to America’s AI economy. Their bill would enact a moratorium on new and existing data-center growth as well as a ban on exporting AI chips. The pause would last until Congress passes a “framework” to regulate the industry.
In other words, the degrowth duo want to tie up America’s most innovative and globally competitive industry using the same bureaucratic process that has recently resulted in TSA airport security lines snaking through terminals and parking garages. And they want to take advantage of Americans’ understandable fears about new technology to impose their radical beliefs on the nation’s economy.
The other perspective on the future is that of Elon Musk. He sees the same general outcome, one in which robots can and will replace most labor, but he sees it as a big step forward for humans. Work, as he says, will be optional. He compares it to gardening to grow your own vegetables. Most people just go to the store to buy them, but some people find the work satisfying and grow their own. This is from last month.
🔥 ELON MUSK JUST DROPPED THE BOMB: “In 10 Years, You WON’T HAVE TO WORK EVER AGAIN” @elonmusk says AI + robots will make jobs totally OPTIONAL, like choosing to play video games or grow veggies in your backyard instead of buying them.
No more 9-5 grind.
No more bills… https://t.co/j9OjnhMVBg pic.twitter.com/wPNG9aAKPH
— ᙢinus ᙡells (@MinusWells) February 27, 2026
The irony here is in what Musk doesn’t say. Obviously if most people aren’t working, they will need some way to sustain themselves. He’s suggested in the past that some sort of universal basic income will be needed, perhaps a direct subsidy from the government for everyone.
So you have America’s leading socialist (Sanders) campaigning for the preservation of traditional wage-labor and you have America’s leading capitalist (Musk) campaigning for something that would necessitate socialism on a massive scale. We live in a very strange world.
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