Elon Musk Offers Advice to Young People: Learn to Ask Better Questions in the AI Era

Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered advice to young people during an interview with CCTV Finance on September 23, focusing on education, artificial intelligence and the skills he believes will become increasingly important in the future.

Discussing education in the age of AI, Musk said young people should pursue broad learning rather than limiting themselves to a single field. He highlighted the importance of gaining knowledge across areas including science, engineering, the humanities and the arts. In his view, a broader knowledge base can help people formulate better questions, making the ability to ask questions an increasingly important skill in the AI era.

Musk also discussed how people may interact with artificial intelligence as AI and robotics continue to advance. As AI systems become capable of carrying out increasingly complex tasks, users will need to communicate their goals and requirements clearly.

For Musk, writing effective prompts is not simply about memorizing specific commands. The more fundamental skill is understanding what problem needs to be solved and communicating the desired outcome accurately. A broader range of knowledge, he suggested, can help people understand problems from different perspectives and formulate more effective questions.

His comments reflect a broader change taking place in education. In the past, possessing large amounts of specific information could provide a significant advantage. As AI systems become increasingly capable of searching, organizing and generating information, however, the ability to identify the right problem, ask precise questions and evaluate the resulting answers may become increasingly important.

The comments have generated discussion online, particularly as AI tools become more widely used in schools and workplaces. The growing availability of AI does not necessarily eliminate the need for human judgment. Instead, people still need to define their objectives, assess the quality of AI-generated information and decide how the information should be used.

During the same interview, Musk also spoke positively about China. He described China as a “great country” and encouraged people around the world to visit and explore it for themselves. He specifically recommended Shanghai, Beijing and Xi’an, and recalled traveling by high-speed rail from Beijing to Xi’an. Musk said travelers should spend less time looking at their phones and more time observing the scenery outside the window.

Musk’s latest comments place particular emphasis on adaptability in an era when artificial intelligence is changing how people learn and work. Rather than focusing solely on acquiring a fixed set of skills, his advice centers on developing broad knowledge, communicating clearly and learning how to work effectively with increasingly capable AI systems.