Tesla CEO Elon Musk has doubled down on his support of a universal basic income as a possible solution for unemployment caused by the rise of machines equipped with artificial intelligence taking over the workforce.

A universal basic income would give a standard amount of money to every citizen to cover basic expenses like food and living costs each month.

At the World Government Summit in Dubai on Monday, Musk told a crowd that universal basic income is 'going to be necessary' in the future.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk told a crowd at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Monday (pictured) that universal basic income is 'going to be necessary' in the future

Musk first joined the growing list of tech executives supporting the payment system in November when he spoke about the concept in an interview with CNBC.

Former President Barack Obama warned Congress in March that by 2030, as many as 50 per cent of jobs could be replaced by robots, leaving millions of people without work.

The tech CEO (pictured above on Monday) did, however, voice his skepticism over the payment system

'There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better,' Musk said on Monday of the future of employment. 'I want to be clear. These are not things I wish will happen; these are things I think probably will happen.'

He added that the rise in automation could mean an increase in society's wealth.

'The output of goods and services will be extremely high. With automation, there will come abundance,' Musk said. 'Almost everything will get very cheap.'

The new wealth could theoretically be redistributed to give people financial security, even if they're out of work.

Musk did, however, voice his skepticism over the payment system - worrying that people might lost their purpose if they don't have to work.

'The much harder challenge is, how are people going to have meaning?' the CEO of Tesla, SolarCity, and SpaceX asked. 'A lot of people derive their meaning from their employment.

'So if there's no need for your labor, what's your meaning? Do you feel useless? That's a much harder problem to deal with.'

In his interview with CNBC last year, Musk, said certain jobs, like truck driving, may soon be lost to automated technologies.

Musk said basic income could be a possible solution for unemployment caused by the rise of machines equipped with artificial intelligence taking over the workforce

And with machines taking over the workforce, human income would shift as well, potentially necessitating universal payments from the government.

'There is a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation,' Musk told CNBC. 'I'm not sure what else one would do with this.'I think that's what would happen.'

Musk went on to explain that some people may have plans to do more 'complex' and 'more interesting' things with these capabilities in the future.

This will open the door for more leisure time, he said.

'And then we have to figure out how we integrate with a world in the future with advanced AI,' Musk told CNBC, noting that this will likely be the 'toughest' part.

'Ultimately,' he said, 'it would need to be some kind of improved symbiosis with digital superintelligence.'

Y Combinator President Sam Altman and Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes have also been vocal about their support of a universal basic income.

Advocates for the income system say it could be cheaper to implement that people believe.

'Because a very small amount of people have an almost unimaginable amount of money at the very top, a basic income could actually decrease almost everyone else's income tax burdens except for theirs,' Scott Santens, a UBI advocate, wrote for The Huffington Post.