Musk to The Economist: AI could surpass all of humanity's combined intelligence in 5 years
In an interview published July 23, Elon Musk told The Economist that AI will likely surpass the combined intelligence of all humans within five years, and that humanity will probably lose meaningful control of its trajectory within a decade — a claim with direct implications for Tesla's own AI bets on FSD and Optimus. He compared the coming gap to that between humans and chimpanzees: "It's hard to imagine that the chimpanzee would be in charge."
Speaking with Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, Musk oscillated between optimism and warning about AI's trajectory. He said money itself "may stop mattering" by around 2036, while calling "incredible abundance for all" the most likely outcome of AI and robotics.
But he also laid out the risks. Musk said humans will likely lose real control over AI's direction within a decade, and put the odds of that leading to human extinction at roughly 10-20%. "There really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps," he added.
The comments carry direct weight for Tesla shareholders, whose long-term valuation case leans heavily on the company's AI businesses — FSD, Robotaxi, and Optimus. Musk publicly entertaining a scenario where AI's trajectory slips beyond human control offers a data point for weighing how much confidence to place in his own optimistic timelines for those same products.
This isn't the first time Musk has warned about AI risk — he has made similar remarks for years. What stands out this time is the specificity: concrete timeframes (five years, ten years, 2036) and an explicit probability (10-20%) for the worst-case outcome.
Summaries are prepared by the Tesla Briefing editorial team and may not capture every nuance of the original reporting. You are solely responsible for your own investment decisions.