In a 2016 Y Combinator interview, Elon Musk named five fields he had considered pursuing in college: making life multi-planetary, sustainable energy, the internet, genetics, and artificial intelligence. But that was not his direct answer when Sam Altman asked what he would work on if he were 22 “today.” In that separate answer, Musk singled out AI, then discussed genetics and a high-bandwidth connection between the brain and digital tools. The distinction matters: the interview records Musk’s views at the time, not an objective or current ranking of humanity’s most important problems.
What did Musk say he would work on if he were 22 in 2016?
Sam Altman asked Musk, “If you were 22 today, what would the five problems that you would think about working on be?” Musk did not respond with five numbered priorities. He began by saying useful work need not change the world: small games or improvements to photo sharing could still benefit people.
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He then called AI probably the single biggest near-term issue likely to affect humanity and described ensuring a good future for AI as “the most pressing item.” He went on to discuss genetics, including the possibility of addressing genetic diseases and dementia, and the bandwidth limit between the brain and a person’s digital tools. Those are the areas and concerns he raised in that answer; the transcript does not turn them into a ranked list of five.
Y Combinator’s transcript of “Elon Musk on How to Build the Future,” published September 15, 2016, attributes the interview to Altman. Its date and hypothetical framing are essential context: Musk was answering a question about what he might do if he were 22 then, not issuing a fresh assessment of priorities for 2026.
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What were the five fields Musk had considered in college?
In a later exchange, Altman asked about the five things Musk had considered pursuing in college. Musk recalled these interests:
- Making life multi-planetary.
- Accelerating the transition to sustainable energy.
- The internet, broadly speaking.
- Genetics.
- Artificial intelligence.
This retrospective list is the source of the headline’s five fields. It describes interests Musk remembered having in college, not the five items he gave in response to the “22 today” hypothetical. He also said he did not expect to become involved in all of them and thought he would begin with the electrification of cars.
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How did Musk think about choosing useful work?
Musk offered a way to think about a project’s impact: “Whatever this thing is that you’re trying to create, what would be the utility delta compared to the current state of the art times how many people it would affect.” In other words, he suggested considering both how much a project improves on what exists and how many people it reaches.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →He also said, “Stuff doesn’t need to change the world to be good.” A substantial improvement for a smaller group and a modest improvement for a very large group can both count as worthwhile under that framing. It is Musk’s stated heuristic, not a validated formula for calculating impact or a rule that resolves trade-offs between different fields.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the interview does—and does not—establish
The conversation documents Musk’s opinions, ambitions, and predictions in 2016. It does not assess how severe each problem is relative to others, compare evidence across the fields, or establish that these are objectively the five most important problems today. The college recollection and the hypothetical answer also serve different purposes: one looks back at interests, while the other asks what he might choose to work on at that time.
Read the five fields as a snapshot of what Musk found compelling, alongside his emphasis on AI as a near-term concern in his hypothetical answer. The interview is useful for understanding his reasoning about work and impact; it is not, by itself, a current guide to ranking global challenges.
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