Key Highlights
- Elon Musk anticipates that AI will exceed human intelligence within roughly five years.
- He believes that by the end of the decade, humans may no longer maintain control over AI, even as it generates unmatched abundance.
- Musk advocates for regular safety reviews among leading AI developers before they release new models.
Elon Musk predicts that artificial intelligence could surpass the collective intelligence of humanity within the next five years and warns that humans may lose control over AI within a decade.
In a conversation with The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, Musk, founder of xAI, expressed that AI is poised to outperform humans in nearly all intellectual activities.
"There really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps,” Musk stated. “The most likely outcome is an age of amazing abundance where anyone can have anything they can think of. This may sound preposterous, but here we are in 2026. Let's see where we stand in 2036."
This discussion is another instance in which Musk has suggested that AI could lead to an "age of abundance" that brings both comfort and an existential crisis for humanity. While he acknowledges the potential of advanced AI, he still sees it as a source of existential risk and feels there is no feasible way to slow its advancement.
“I can't see any way to really stop this incredible momentum of AI and robots,” he remarked. “At times I think, well, perhaps even if there was a stop button, we probably shouldn't press it, because the most likely outcome is incredible abundance for all."
Musk proposed that top AI companies should hold regular discussions to address safety and security issues. He also suggested that competing AI labs should have limited early access to each other's advanced models to help identify potential dangers before they are released to the public. If a company fails to mitigate serious risks, he indicated that government intervention might be necessary.
While advocating for collaboration among AI developers, Musk did not hold back in criticizing his longtime competitor Sam Altman and OpenAI's transformation from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity, claiming it has deviated from its founding principles.
"Well, I'm not a fan of Sam Altman because you started a nonprofit that was meant to be an open-source AI company, owned by the world, and it somehow got turned into an $800 billion for-profit company with closed source,” Musk commented.
In May, a jury in California dismissed Musk's $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and co-founder Greg Brockman, ruling that they were not liable for claims that they had abandoned the nonprofit mission in favor of a commercial model. This verdict concluded one of Musk's most significant legal battles against the ChatGPT developer.
Musk speculated that Anthropic was founded because co-founder Dario Amodei and his team lost trust in OpenAI's Sam Altman, suggesting they would have remained at OpenAI otherwise.
"I think Dario is a very principled person. He cares about the future of the world, and I think everyone I've met at Anthropic so far has been well-intentioned. No one has set off my evil detector,” he remarked. “The road to hell is mostly paved with bad intentions. There are a few well-intentioned paving stones in there, so we don't want to be complacent.”
Despite his criticisms of OpenAI's leadership, Musk emphasized the importance of cooperation among rival AI firms concerning safety measures.
"At the end of the day, if we have to talk, we'll talk," Musk concluded. "Set aside our personal differences for the good of the world."