CEOInterviews.AI
Start App
Elon Musk
Elon Musk SPCX
Founder, CEO, Chief Technology Officer & Board Chair, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)
Watch

Elon Musk on AI: humans will no longer be in control in ten years | The Economist

📅 Jul 23, 2026 The Economist 10 MIN 255866 VIEWS 37 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Elon Musk expects artificial intelligence to exceed the sum of human intelligence in about five years and thinks that humans will no longer be in control in ten years. In an interview with Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist’s editor-in-chief, he predicts an “age of amazing abundance,” and sets out his proposal for how rival AI labs could review each other’s frontier models and explains why he believes the industry’s bosses can still work together. #AI #elonmusk #artificialintelligence 00:00 - Will AI be smarter than all humans in five years? 01:07 - Will humans be in control in ten years?...

What Elon Musk said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Elon Musk predicted that AI will exceed the sum of human intelligence in about five years, leading to an age of amazing abundance by 2036, barring events like a global thermonuclear war. He acknowledged that humans will likely no longer be in control within ten years, comparing the intelligence gap to that between humans and chimpanzees. Musk maintained there is a 10-20% chance of killer robots wiping out humanity but said he has adopted a philosophical stance to look on the bright side, as he sees no way to stop AI's momentum. He discussed how creating OpenAI as a counterweight to Google inadvertently accelerated AI, with Anthropic now leading the field. Musk endorsed a proposal by Demis Hassabis for a private-public regulator, recommending informal weekly or bi-weekly calls among leading AI companies and early access for competitors to review models. He criticized Sam Altman for turning OpenAI into an $800 billion for-profit company, contrary to its original nonprofit mission, but expressed willingness to set aside personal differences for the good of the world.

Key takeaways

  1. Musk still sees a 10-20% chance of killer robots wiping out humanity but has chosen to focus on the positive outcome of abundance.
  2. Musk criticized Sam Altman for turning OpenAI into an $800 billion for-profit company, contrary to its original nonprofit mission.
  3. Musk said creating OpenAI as a counterweight to Google inadvertently accelerated AI, with Anthropic now the leader.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
10 to 20% Chance of killer robots wiping out humanity metric 1:53
2036 Year to check on age of amazing abundance timeline 0:25
$800 billion Valuation of OpenAI as for-profit company metric 9:07

Chapters

  1. 0:00AI surpassing human intelligence
  2. 0:25Age of amazing abundance
  3. 1:07Humans losing control
  4. 1:53Risk of killer robots
  5. 2:54Inevitability of AI progress
  6. 3:30Heat death of the universe
  7. 4:27Accelerating AI through OpenAI
  8. 5:35Proposal for AI regulation
  9. 6:32Competitor review system
  10. 9:07Criticism of Sam Altman

Questions asked in this interview

7
  1. 0:20On a more prosaic level, what will life be like?
  2. 1:07You're sure that humans will no longer be in control in 10 years' time?
  3. 1:53Now you seem very relaxed about it. Have you changed your view?
  4. 3:20Do you think there's still a 10 to 20% chance that killer robots mean the end of humanity?
  5. 4:07If it's 10 to 20% in 10 years, would you go into one of your rockets if you thought there was a 10 to 20% chance of it blowing up and killing you?
  6. 7:49How many were there last week?
  7. 8:52So do you think you can do that with people you dislike, where there seems to be such personal vitriol between some of these leaders?
Elon Musk 0:00 ↗
I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in about in around five years.
Interviewer 0:07 ↗
In five years.
Elon Musk 0:08 ↗
Roughly five years is my guess. So there really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans apart from being human perhaps.
Interviewer 0:20 ↗
On a more prosaic level, what will life be like?
Elon Musk 0:25 ↗
The most likely outcome is an age of amazing abundance where anyone can have anything they can think of. This may sound preposterous, but well, here we are in 2026. Let's see where we stand in 2036. Now, of course, there are things that could derail this, like a massive global thermonuclear war or something like that. But assuming that there's not World War Three, I think we're headed for an age of amazing abundance. So, this is a message of optimism and excitement about the future.
Interviewer 1:07 ↗
You're sure that humans will no longer be in control in 10 years' time?
Elon Musk 1:12 ↗
I think it is unlikely. In the same way that if you had a vastly more intelligent AI, the difference in intelligence between AI and humans is vastly greater than the difference in intelligence between AI and chimpanzees, it's hard to imagine that the chimpanzees would be in charge.
Interviewer 1:38 ↗
We are essentially an evolved form of chimpanzee. So it wasn't that long ago that we were swinging through the trees eating bananas in the jungle, and we still eat bananas.
You said there was a 10 to 20% chance of killer robots wiping out humanity. You sounded worried then. Now you seem very relaxed about it. Have you changed your view?
Elon Musk 2:03 ↗
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. And 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.
Interviewer 2:45 ↗
That's what I thought actually. It struck me that now you seem to have decided it's inevitable. Let's hope for the best and go for the ride.
Elon Musk 2:54 ↗
Yes, pretty much. Let's enjoy the ride is my philosophy at this point, because there seems to be just an inexorable progress in AI and in robots. But even if I wanted to stop it, I couldn't.
Interviewer 3:20 ↗
Do you think there's still a 10 to 20% chance that killer robots mean the end of humanity? That's a high P doom, as they say.
Elon Musk 3:30 ↗
Well, in the long run, we're all dead, of course. According to the standard model of physics, the end of the universe is a long, boring sort of thin gray soup of gradual cooling, the heat death of the universe. So if the heat death of the universe is in fact the outcome for our reality, then it really is all about the journey, because the destination is terrible.
Interviewer 4:07 ↗
But 10 years is not very long. I get that, but that could be a long way and you're basically very long way. If it's 10 to 20% in 10 years, would you go into one of your rockets if you thought there was a 10 to 20% chance of it blowing up and killing you?
Elon Musk 4:21 ↗
Yes, but you can't do anything about it.
Interviewer 4:27 ↗
I guess the only thing we can try to do is minimize the probability of the bad outcome, but trying to stop the intelligence in robots... For the longest time, I declined to participate in AI, or created OpenAI as essentially a counterweight to Google, because at the time they had more or less a monopoly on AI. And creating OpenAI and then having Anthropic spin out of that, and now currently Anthropic is the leader in AI. These actions have actually resulted in knock-on effects that accelerated AI, which wasn't really my intention. So it just seems like all roads lead to acceleration of AI. So then I'm like, okay, well, you can just sort of be sad about it or join the club, I suppose.
Well, you've certainly joined the club.
Elon Musk 5:30 ↗
Yeah.

18 more exchanges in this transcript

Sign in free to read the rest of this interview. No card required.

Sign in to read the full transcript

Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Musk, E. (2026, July 23). Elon Musk on AI: humans will no longer be in control in ten years | The Economist [Interview transcript]. The Economist. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1116674/

MLA

Elon Musk. "Elon Musk on AI: humans will no longer be in control in ten years | The Economist." The Economist, 23 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1116674/.

BibTeX 
@misc{musk2026_1116674,
  author       = {Elon Musk},
  title        = {Elon Musk on AI: humans will no longer be in control in ten years  | The Economist},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, The Economist. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {jul},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1116674/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}