Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday predicted that artificial intelligence could surpass human intelligence as early as 2026 and exceed the collective intelligence of humanity within the next five years, underscoring the rapid pace of technological change reshaping the global economy. 

AI, robotics, and the future of civilisation 

Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Musk joined BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on a panel discussion where he shared his outlook on artificial intelligence, robotics, and the future of civilisation. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in 10 years, but at the rate AI is progressing, I think we might have AI that is smarter than any human by the end of this year,” Musk said. He added that by 2030 or 2031, AI could become “smarter than all of humanity collectively.” 

Musk said the convergence of AI and robotics would trigger an unprecedented phase of economic expansion. He revealed that his companies are preparing to bring humanoid robots to the consumer market. “If things go well, we expect to sell humanoid robots to the public by the end of next year,” he said. 

'More robots than people' 

According to Musk, the scale of production would be transformative. “We will actually make so many robots and AI that they will saturate human needs. My prediction is that there will be more robots than people,” he said, adding that robots could eventually manufacture other robots, dramatically altering industrial processes. 

The Tesla and SpaceX chief argued that robots would significantly reduce the burden of human labour and improve quality of life. “Everyone on Earth is going to want a robot,” Musk said, pointing to potential uses such as caring for elderly parents, watching over children and looking after pets, provided safety concerns are fully addressed. 

Musk said the broader mission of his ventures—including Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink and xAI—is to “maximise the probability that civilisation has a great future.” 

His appearance at Davos came at a time when Grok, an AI product developed by his startup xAI, has been facing controversy over allegations related to the generation of sexually explicit images. 

Musk’s presence at the WEF was notable given his long-standing criticism of the forum. He has frequently described Davos as elitist and disconnected from ordinary people, and has mocked the gathering on his social media platform X, calling it “boring” and branding the WEF as “an unelected world government that people never asked for.”