Tech mogul Elon Musk, who heads some of the world’s most valuable brands like Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter) and Neuralink, has come up with a highly pessimistic forecast for the world’s near future, publicly declaring that a major, possibly nuclear, conflict is imminent and is set to arrive possibly within the next five to ten years.
Musk, while participating into a discussion about the effectiveness of global governance in the age of nuclear weapons, shared his prediction for the future of the world. One user had proposed that nuclear deterrence, by eliminating the threat of existential war between major powers, also removed the “evolutionary pressure” on governments to perform effectively, leading to global complacency.
Musk’s reply, however, cut through the academic discussion, stating, “War is inevitable. 5 years, 10 at most.”
Musk predicts new war in future
This is not the first time the billionaire has voiced concerns over escalating global instability. However, the explicit timeline and the implied scale of the conflict, “possibly nuclear”, have sent ripples across the tech and geopolitical spheres.
Lacking further elaboration from Musk, users on X turned to Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI, to provide context based on his previous public commentary.
Musk’s Grok AI elaborated on his concerns
Upon asking Grok for analysis, users were given a worrying response. Grok’s analysis compiled several geopolitical flashpoints that Musk has repeatedly flagged as potential triggers for a wider global crisis. These scenarios include escalation of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine into a third world war or a major conflict between the US and China, particularly concerning the sovereignty of Taiwan.
Grok even spoke about warnings of potential civil wars within Europe or the UK, fueled by internal factors such as mass migration and intensifying identity politics.
Grok, unlike Musk, noted that nuclear deterrence theoretically prevents conventional large-scale wars. However, as someone who has worked previously with the US government, Musk’s statements highlight rising tensions in terms of both regional and ideological methods. As artificial intelligence continues to be developed at a mass scale, the threat of a nuclear war in the coming years seems more worrisome.
