In his first extended interview with The Economist since the massive public offering of shares of SpaceX, Musk shared an extremely optimistic technological outlook regarding artificial intelligence.
Musk believes that within just a few years, artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence, the number of humanoid robots could reach one billion, and an AI-powered “age of abundance” could make money lose its meaning.
He said:
“There will be nothing that artificial intelligence cannot do better than humans, except being human itself, perhaps.”
Musk believes that AI could exceed the combined intelligence of all humans within approximately five years, suggesting that the most likely outcome is an era of extraordinary abundance where anyone could access almost anything they can imagine.
He added:
“This may sound like science fiction… Of course, there are things that could stop this progress, such as a global nuclear war. But assuming there is no World War III, I believe we are heading toward an era of incredible abundance. So, this is a message of optimism and excitement for the future.”
Musk, whose electric vehicle company Tesla is developing a multi-purpose humanoid robot called Optimus, believes that within five years there could be at least 100 million humanoid robots, and possibly up to one billion, replacing many forms of manual labour.