Jack Ma, an icon of China's Internet era, painted a rosy picture of the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) on Thursday, saying smarter machines will allow humans to better enjoy life.

Ma, executive chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba, held a dialogue with Elon Musk, CEO of US electric carmaker Tesla Inc., at the opening ceremony of the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in east China's Shanghai.

The two illustrious figures in the tech sector exchanged thoughts on topics from AI and future education to immigration to Mars.

On the looming prospects of AI stealing human jobs and causing massive layoffs, Ma challenged the assumption that there would be a job shortage in the future.

The invention of electricity gave humans more spare time, so "you can go to a dance party in the evening," argued Ma. Likewise, he believes more powerful AI will give humans "more time to enjoy being human beings."

"I think people should work three days a week, four hours a day," Ma said. "I don't think we'll need a lot of jobs at that time. The jobs we'll need are to make people happier, help them experience life and enjoy being human beings."

Meanwhile, AI will be needed for many jobs undesired by human workers, according to Ma. Especially as life science advances are set to push life expectancy over 100, intelligent robots will take up the laborious jobs of caring for the elderly.

China hosted the WAIC in Shanghai last year for the first time, attracting 200,000 visitors and 72,000 guests from over 40 countries and regions.