Elon Musk has just issued a bold prediction for the future of AI, claiming it to be 'necessary' for the technology to evolve and indicating that it could come true within 'months'.
There are few technologies that have advanced quite as fast as artificial intelligence, as in just over three years, the software has gone from the comparatively primitive stages of ChatGPT to something that dictates the global economy.
What was once used for simply prompts can now generate frighteningly realistic videos and appears to be edging ever closer to a point where it exceeds the capabilities of humans, yet it could be about to hit a major hurdle. That’s according to the tech world's most prominent figure.
Elon Musk never shies away from a bold prediction, and while he doesn't always get it right, it does tend to dictate where the industry is looking to head in the near future.
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His latest one could be make or break for AI, as while its rapid development has taken over the world, that could soon stall if a significant issue isn't solved in the way that Musk outlines.
Speaking to the Dwarkesh Podcast, Musk prophesied that we are soon approaching the 'end' of AI unless it solves its power issues, indicating that the only way to do that would be to send operations to space.
"My prediction is that by far the cheapest place to put AI will be space in 36 months or less, maybe 30 months," the world's richest man indicated, telling people to "mark my words."
We have seen similar hypotheses put forward by figures like Jeff Bezos before, yet Musk's declaration only further cements his belief that it's the only way forward.
While it would hypothetically be beneficial in relation to the severe environmental concerns that AI data centers cause, as moving operations to space would remove the impact on our planet, it's unclear whether that would necessarily solve the issue outright.
For Musk, the resolution lies in the limited capacity for power scaling on Earth currently, and taking advantage of the solar energy produced by the Sun would open up the opportunity for expansion.
"All of the United States currently uses only about half a terawatt of power on average. Imagine trying to build enough power plants to double that. People don't realize how hard that actually is," Musk explained on the podcast.
"Solar cells are already very cheap, around 25 to 30 cents a watt in China. Put them in space and it's effectively 10 times cheaper because you don't need batteries."
While 36 months – or even 30 months for Musk's more optimistic estimate – seems like a short amount of time to get something like this up and running, the sheer amount of time and money invested into AI would likely allow it to happen if it were possible. Maybe we could see this major move take place sooner than we expect.