AI is finding its way into studios, fashion houses, film sets and music production, changing some of the ways creative work is made. That has also prompted a debate over whether young people should concentrate on technical skills or keep subjects such as art and the humanities in their education. Elon Musk has weighed in on the question, advising young people not to leave the arts behind.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the remarks during an interview with China Media Group at Tesla's global engineering headquarters in California. The interview was published on September 25, 2026. The interviewer asked Musk how a 20-year-old could fulfill their potential and avoid being left behind during what was described as a "massive transition" driven by AI.
Elon Musk recommended a broad-based education. "My recommendation for education would be to get as broad-based education as possible. That includes arts and sciences, engineering, wide general knowledge," he said.
He explained that broad knowledge would also help people communicate with increasingly capable robots and AI systems. "In order to know what to ask the robots for, you need to be able to formulate the question," Musk said. He added that people with broad general knowledge would be better able to formulate questions, referring to this as "prompt engineering." Musk's comments come as AI tools are being used more widely in creative fields, including visual art, fashion, film and music.
These technologies can generate images, videos, text and other content from written instructions. The entrepreneur also spoke about humanoid robots during the interview. He said advances in sensors, cameras, actuators and AI computing are helping robots become increasingly capable.
"The future is going to have a lot of robots," Musk said, adding that he expects humanoid robots to become widespread "no later than 10 years." Musk's recommendation to study the arts comes at a time when creative professionals are experimenting with AI-generated images, music, video and other forms of content. His comments put arts education alongside science and engineering as part of the broad knowledge he believes young people will need in the coming years. Balancing AI Skills with Creative Knowledge Elon Musk's comments come as schools and universities are already reconsidering how creative education should work in an age of generative AI.
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