Elon Musk delivers emotional message on humanity's future
About Elon Musk
Elon Musk said in a July 2026 interview with The Economist that he expects artificial intelligence to exceed the sum of human intelligence in roughly five years and that humans will likely no longer be in control in ten years. He described the most likely outcome as an "age of amazing abundance" but acknowledged potential derailments such as a global thermonuclear war. Musk also discussed his recommendation that leading AI companies meet every few weeks to discuss safety and security issues, and he expressed skepticism about the feasibility of regulating AI, stating that "all roads lead to acceleration of AI." In June and July 2026, Musk spoke at events surrounding SpaceX's initial public offering, which he described as the largest IPO ever. He said he initially gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding and that the company's goal is to "take the fiction out of science fiction" by making life multi-planetary. Musk outlined plans to increase mass to orbit from roughly 2,500 tons per year to millions of tons per year within about three years using Starship, and discussed building AI data centers in space powered by solar arrays. He also referenced the Kardashev scale as a metric for civilization's progress and said that reaching higher levels would require a mass driver on the Moon for local production of photovoltaics. Separately, Musk said he acquired Twitter because he believed the platform was at risk of being shut down under a Kamala Harris administration, and he described the Department of Justice as having attacked SpaceX for not hiring asylum seekers, which he said is legal under International Traffic in Arms Regulations.