Elon Musk has told the world to prepare for machines that out-think it, predicting that artificial intelligence “may exceed the sum of human intelligence in about and around five years”.
The forecast, made in a wide-ranging interview with The Economist, lands as a pointed challenge to every UK firm still weighing whether AI is worth the bother. If Musk is even roughly right, the tools now trickling into SME back offices are on a five-year path to eclipsing the people using them.
Musk, who last month became the world’s first trillionaire after the float of SpaceX in the US, framed the shift as an opportunity rather than a threat. The most likely outcome, he said, was an “age of amazing abundance”, and he intended to “enjoy the ride”.
For owner-managers, the practical question is timing. Roughly a quarter of UK businesses now use some form of AI, according to the Office for National Statistics, a figure that has climbed sharply in two years. Musk’s timeline suggests the cost of sitting it out is rising just as fast.
He was candid about the risks. “I still think there’s risk associated with AI and robots. It’s not zero,” he said, having previously warned of a 10-20 per cent chance the technology could wipe out humanity. His conclusion, though, was to “look on the bright side”.
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