Mr Musk has been a prominent figure in the development of artificial intelligence and space travel and recently spoke of the future of the human race. During a World Artificial Intelligence conference in Shanghai, Mr Musk made the bold prediction while talking to fellow tech mogul, Jack Ma.
Speaking at the conference, Mr Musk said: “There’s a probability that something may happen to Earth.
“Despite our best intentions and everything we might try to do, some external force or unforeseen error causes civilisation to be destroyed.
“Or sufficiently impaired that civilisation cannot extend to another planet.”
The depressing prediction for the human civilisation comes amid the reports that SpaceX has identified several landing spots on Mars.
According to reports, Mr Musk’s company recently requested Mars lading sites from NASA.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRise camera database includes a handful of images labelled as “candidate landing sites for “SpaceX Starship”.
The principal investigator for HiRise, told CNET: “Under direction from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the HiRISE team has been imaging candidate landing sites for SpaceX.
“This effort began in 2017, initially for the Red Dragon lander, and is continuing for their Starship vehicle.”
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Mr Musk added: “I think it’s important for us to take the set of actions that are most likely to continue consciousness into the future.”
Moreover, Mr Musk insisted that we are currently within the ideal window to journey outside of Earth.
He concluded: “Put another way, this is the first time in the four-and-a-half-billion-year history of the Earth that it’s been possible to extend life beyond Earth.
“Before this, it was not possible.
“How long will this window be open?”
Away from exploring Mars, Mr Musk also spoke of the potential speculation that the US Government has met extraterrestrial life.
Extolling the development of SpaceX, the tech mogul added that SpaceX has its own equivalent to Area 51.
Mr Musk said: “There are people out there who think we have found aliens.
“Trust me, I would know: We have not.
“People ask me if I have been to Area 51. Ok, please. SpaceX actually has area 59 and it’s eight better than area 51.”