- Elon Musk predicts AI will surpass the combined intelligence of humanity within about five years.
- He says humans are unlikely to remain in control of AI within the next decade, even as the technology creates unprecedented abundance.
- Musk wants leading AI developers to regularly review each other’s frontier models for safety risks before release.
Speaking with The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes on Thursday, Elon Musk stated that Artificial Intelligence is on track to outperform humans at nearly every intellectual task. The xAI founder said this could happen within about five years, leading to a world where humans are no longer in control of the technology.
“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.” He acknowledged that while this sounds preposterous, the current pace of development makes it a realistic outcome for 2036.
Despite his belief in a future of abundance, Musk still views advanced AI as an existential risk. However, he no longer sees a path to slowing its development, stating, “I can’t see any way to really stop this incredible momentum of AI and robots.” He added that even if a stop button existed, it likely should not be pressed.
Instead of halting progress, Musk proposed that leading AI companies hold regular meetings to discuss safety. He suggested giving competing labs early access to each other’s models to identify dangerous capabilities before public release, with government intervention as a last resort.
During the discussion, Musk criticized longtime rival Sam Altman and OpenAI’s shift from a nonprofit to a for-profit company. “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,” he said.
Musk also praised Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei, suggesting the company was founded because his team no longer trusted Altman. “I think Dario is a very principled person,” Musk stated, adding he has not met anyone at Anthropic who “set off my evil detector.” Despite his disagreements, Musk urged rivals to cooperate for the greater good.
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