Elon Musk: UK faces reckoning ... but I haven't visited for years

Elon Musk has said there will be a 'reckoning' in the UK but admitted he has not been to the country for 'a few years'. When questioned in an interview about previous comments that the UK was heading for a 'civil war' due to the rising Muslim population, the founder of SpaceX and the boss of Tesla said: 'If you have a large and growing, rapidly growing, group of people whose beliefs are antithetical to western beliefs, at some point there will be a reckoning.' Musk, who became the world's first trillionaire after the float of SpaceX in the US last month, said he had been to the UK 'literally a hundred times'. Asked when the last time was, he said: 'It's literally a few years ago.' Asked why he was motivated to make such pronouncements, Musk said: 'My partner is half-Indian and I have four children with her. One of them was named after a famous Indian physicist. So I would say I'm not racist.' Strider, one of Musk and Shivon Zilis's twin sons, has the middle name Sekhar in tribute to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a Nobel laureate. Musk, who was born in South Africa, also cited his workforce: 'If you look at the people that are employed at my companies, we have senior executives of all races. I don't think there's any racism there.' Musk, 55, was then asked if he was anti-Muslim. 'If people are coming to a country with antithetical views, I am against that,' he said. 'I'm against rape and murder, I'm against the imposition of rules and laws that are contrary to what we've come to accept in the West. I think it's a crying shame that the traditional media don't recognise this.' In the interview with The Economist, Musk was asked about a range of issues, including artificial intelligence and his work with President Trump. Musk suggested that AI 'may exceed the sum of human intelligence in about and around five years'. The most likely outcome from the tech revolution was an 'age of amazing abundance', he said, vowing to 'enjoy the ride'. Musk, who has previously warned there is a 10-20 per cent chance that AI and robots could wipe out humanity, said: 'I still think there's risk associated with AI and robots. It's not zero. [But] my philosophical conclusion is to look on the bright side. I can't see any way to really stop this incredible momentum of AI and robots. At times I think, Well, even if there was a stop button, we probably shouldn't press it because the most likely outcome is incredible abundance for all. There seems to be inexorable progress in AI and in robots that even if I wanted to stop it, I couldn't.' Nonetheless, he said leading AI companies should meet regularly to 'discuss any safety and security issues', adding: 'That's where I think the competitors can keep each other honest. I think it's quite difficult for someone in the government who doesn't have a deep technical understanding and isn't driving the frontier of AI to know whether something should be released or not. However, the competitors I think can, if given a week or two to review a new model, highlight issues.' Musk also expressed regret at his involvement with the Trump administration, when he led the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) seeking to cut costs. He said: 'I think I got a little too involved in politics, got carried away, frankly.'