Elon Musk just delivered one of his most striking predictions yet about the future of artificial intelligence. In an interview with The Economist Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes published in late July 2026, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said he expects AI to exceed the total sum of human intelligence within roughly five years. In his own words, "I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in around five years… there really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans apart from being human perhaps." When Beddoes asked whether that meant humans would no longer be in control within 10 years, Musk answered, "I think it is unlikely." He explained the reasoning with a striking analogy: "If 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. We are essentially an evolved form of chimpanzee. It wasn't that long ago that we were swing...