Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has predicted that artificial intelligence could become more intelligent than the combined capabilities of all humans within the next five years, warning that the technology’s rapid advancement may be impossible to stop.
Speaking in an interview with The Economist published on Thursday, the world’s richest man said AI would eventually outperform humans in nearly every field, except for the uniquely human experience.
Musk said the continued development of advanced AI is more likely to usher in an era of unprecedented abundance than one of destruction, enabling people to access solutions to almost any material need.
“I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in around five years. There really won’t be anything that AI can’t do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps,” he told The Economist.
“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,” he added.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive said the momentum behind AI development has grown beyond the control of any individual or organisation, including himself.
Although Musk has repeatedly warned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, he said he has come to accept that its continued advancement is inevitable.
“I still think there’s risk associated with AI and robots. It’s not zero. I guess I’ve come to my philosophical conclusion to look on the bright side. I can’t see any way to really stop this incredible momentum of AI and robots,” he said.
“Let’s enjoy the ride is my philosophy at this point, because there seems to be just an inexorable progress here in AI and in robots that even if I wanted to stop it, I don’t, I couldn’t,” Musk added.
Responding to a question about whether he still believed AI had a 10 to 20 per cent chance of causing human extinction, Musk said the possibility remained, but his outlook on the issue had changed.
He also called on leading AI companies to hold regular discussions on safety and security, proposing weekly or bi-weekly meetings where competing firms could review new AI models before they are released.
“The competitors can keep each other honest,” Musk said, arguing that AI companies are better positioned than governments to determine whether a new system poses a security threat.
He urged the industry to adopt such measures quickly, noting that the rapid pace of AI innovation leaves little room for delay.
“There are so many AI breakthrough announcements, sometimes multiple per day,” he said.
However, Musk’s prediction has been met with scepticism from some artificial intelligence experts, who argue that current AI systems still fall short of understanding or replicating the full complexity of human intelligence.
