Widespread adoption of artificial intelligence could lift the size of the global economy by 20–30%, adding roughly $20 trillion to $40 trillion a year to world output, Elon Musk told G20 ministers via video link. CNBC posted a clip of the Tesla and SpaceX founder’s remarks. According to Musk, the surge would stem from a step change in labor productivity that will first transform the digital sector and then ripple across the broader structure of global production.

He argued that algorithms are already proving highly efficient at software development and are rapidly approaching a breakpoint. In about 12–18 months, Musk predicted, AI will surpass human capabilities in coding, reaching a level of dominance comparable to the chess engine Stockfish. After that, it will be extremely difficult for specialists to compete with automated systems on digital and engineering tasks.