(Building on my recent post, “Navigating the AI Disruption – Thoughts on EXIT Training and a Call for Leadership,” where I introduced EXIT Training—Exit Into Thriving Training—as a way for companies to fund fair transitions during AI shifts.)
Dear Elon,
Your vision for the future—AI and robots like Optimus unlocking an era of true abundance, where work is optional, poverty ends, and humanity thrives—has inspired millions, myself included. You’ve been candid about the challenges: the “traumatic” transition as jobs shift, the need for universal high income, and the supersonic speed of change coming for desk work and beyond.
But inspiration turns into reality when actions align with words. Right now, AI is already displacing roles across industries, long before Optimus hits scale. Companies are capturing huge efficiencies, yet support for affected workers is patchy at best—often concentrating gains upward instead of letting them flow back to communities and the next generations who will inherit this world.
We need leaders in this space to model responsibility, turning disruption into paths of resilience and real thriving.
Anthropic is setting a strong example with their Economic Futures Program: funding research, tracking impacts, and exploring real solutions for labor transitions. It’s proactive and transparent—proof that building cutting-edge AI and addressing societal effects aren’t mutually exclusive.
Elon, with your platform (where the world watches every day) and resources across Tesla, xAI, and beyond, you are uniquely positioned to lead here too. You can keep pushing the tech forward at full speed while demonstrating how to handle the human side:
- Form a dedicated transition task force to design and pilot EXIT Training programs—funded retraining tied directly to automation gains.
- Release transparency reports on job impacts and retraining outcomes in your companies.
- Launch funded initiatives (grants, pilots) to help displaced workers move into resilient, human-centered roles like caring for elders, skilled trades, healthcare, the arts, or preserving knowledge through making and storytelling.
- Use your voice to champion workable bridges: reskilling, hybrid models, or whatever your team uncovers.
This wouldn’t slow innovation—it would accelerate adoption by building broader trust and reducing friction. It would show that your human-centric abundance vision starts today, not decades from now, and that the gifts of this technology are shared responsibly with everyone touched by the change—setting up communities and future generations to thrive.
The world is listening. Let’s make the path to that future one we can all walk proudly.
Respectfully,
TG Smith
Blue Sky Thunder
https://blue-sky-thunder.com
Blue Sky Thunder 