Artificial intelligence could surpass the combined intelligence of humanity within approximately five years, and humans are unlikely to maintain control of the technology within a decade, according to Elon Musk.
AI’s Rapid Ascent and Potential for Abundance
Speaking with The Economist‘s editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes on Thursday, the founder of xAI stated that AI is on track to outperform humans in nearly every intellectual task. “There really won’t be anything that AI can’t do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps,” Musk remarked. He posited that the most probable outcome is an era of “amazing abundance where anyone can have anything they can think of.” Musk then added, “This may sound preposterous, but here we are in 2026. Let’s see where we stand in 2036.”
This discussion marks the latest instance where Musk has articulated his belief that AI will usher in an “age of abundance,” a development he anticipates will bring both comfort and an existential crisis for humanity. Despite acknowledging the existential risks posed by advanced AI, Musk stated he no longer sees a viable path to slowing its development.
A Call for Collaboration and Criticism of OpenAI
“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 convene regular meetings to discuss safety and security concerns. He also suggested that competing AI labs be granted limited early access to each other’s frontier models, enabling them to identify dangerous capabilities before public release. Musk indicated that governments could then intervene if a company failed to address serious risks.
While advocating for cooperation among leading AI developers, Musk also took aim at his longtime rival Sam Altman and the evolution of OpenAI from a nonprofit organization into a for-profit entity, asserting that it had deviated from its original mission. “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 stated.
In May, a California jury dismissed Musk’s $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman, and co-founder Greg Brockman. The jury found the defendants not liable on claims that they had abandoned the organization’s nonprofit mission by shifting toward a commercial structure, concluding one of Musk’s most high-profile legal challenges against the ChatGPT developer.
Anthropic’s Origins and the Path Forward
Musk also suggested that Anthropic exists because co-founder Dario Amodei and his team no longer trusted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, arguing they would have otherwise remained at OpenAI. “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,” Musk said. He cautioned, “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 Musk’s praise for Amodei’s leadership at Anthropic, critics, including Sam Altman, have accused the company of using fear-based marketing to promote its Claude AI products.
Nevertheless, Musk emphasized that rival AI companies should be willing to cooperate on safety, stating, “At the end of the day, if we have to talk, we’ll talk. Set aside our personal differences for the good of the world.”
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