What Would Elon Musk Work On If He Were 22?

TL;DR

Musk states that doing useful things for society (even small improvements like games or photo sharing) is fine, but he then identifies three problems most likely to affect humanity’s future: ensuring AI goes right, solving genetic diseases via reprogramming, and creating a high-bandwidth brain–computer interface. He considers AI the single most pressing near-term item.

Key insights

• Work that is useful to many people (even if not world‑changing) is valuable; examples given are a small game or a photo‑sharing improvement.
• AI is the most important near‑term factor affecting humanity’s future; the critical goal is to ensure the advent of AI happens in a good way because it could go wrong.
• Genetics (genetic reprogramming to prevent dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other genetic diseases) is the second most important item.