Artificial intelligence could surpass the combined intelligence of humanity within about five years, and humans are unlikely to remain in control of the technology within a decade, according to Elon Musk.
Speaking with The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes on Thursday, the xAI founder said AI is on track to outperform humans at nearly every intellectual task.
"There really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps,” Musk said. “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."
“I can't see any way to really stop this incredible momentum of AI and robots,” he said. “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."
Instead, Musk proposed that the world's leading AI companies begin holding regular meetings to discuss safety and security concerns. He also suggested giving competing AI labs limited early access to one another's frontier models so they can identify dangerous capabilities before public release. If a company failed to address serious risks, he said, governments could then intervene.
"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,” he said.
"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 said. “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 disagreements with OpenAI leadership, he said rival AI companies should be willing to cooperate on safety.
"At the end of the day, if we have to talk, we'll talk," Musk said. "Set aside our personal differences for the good of the world."
