Tesla AI head Ashok says superintelligence will make all your current problems irrelevant, Musk reacts

Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy says superintelligence could make today's problems irrelevant, with Elon Musk agreeing that advanced AI could bring an age of abundance. However, IBM has also highlighted concerns about the risks of AI becoming difficult to control.

In Short

• Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy says superintelligence could make today's problems seem insignificant
• Elon Musk predicts AI could bring an age of abundance
• IBM reveals concerns about controlling AI that surpasses human intelligence

Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy believes superintelligence could make today's problems seem insignificant and change the way people live. Tesla CEO Elon Musk agrees, saying that advanced AI could eventually bring an age of abundance in which people have access to almost anything they want.

“In the age of super intelligence, the current standards of living will look medieval,” Elluswamy wrote in a post on X on October 21. He added that the problems people worry about today would largely become irrelevant, comparing them with society worrying about the bubonic plague, a deadly disease that killed millions during the Middle Ages. Musk responded to the post with "True."

Elluswamy is Indian and joined Tesla in 2014 as the first engineer on its Autopilot and AI team. He has led the company's Autopilot software team since 2019 and became vice president of AI software in October 2024. His work includes AI technology for self-driving cars and Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus.

Elluswamy did not explain what prompted his latest statement. However, Musk has repeatedly predicted that AI and robots could change everyday life by reducing the need for people to work. In a July 2026 interview with *The Economist*, Musk said AI could become more intelligent than all of humanity combined in about five years. He predicted that this could lead to an “age of amazing abundance”, where people could have almost anything they want.

Musk has also warned that AI could cause serious harm. He has said that while its progress may be difficult to stop, developers must try to reduce the risks and ensure that AI systems care about humanity.

IBM warns superintelligence could be difficult to control

While Musk and Elluswamy see the potential for AI to improve living standards, IBM has also discussed the risks of superintelligence. In a blog post about the future of AI, IBM cited Roman V. Yampolskiy, a computer science and engineering professor at the University of Louisville. He predicted that artificial general intelligence (AGI), which refers to AI with human-level intelligence, could progress towards superintelligence within three to four years.

Yampolskiy warned that AI systems that surpass human intelligence could become difficult to control. They might act in ways that people cannot predict or manage, particularly if their goals do not match human values. He also argued that the risks of superintelligence could be far more serious than the immediate problems associated with AI, such as job losses, bias, deepfakes and misinformation.

His warning offers a different view of the future that Musk and Elluswamy describe. While superintelligence could bring major advances, questions remain about whether humans would be able to control AI systems that are far more intelligent than themselves.

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