Elon Musk claims humanity will find remnants of ancient alien civilizations

Elon Musk delivered a speech at an xAI all-hands meeting about the future of the merged SpaceX and xAI company, which plans to go public this year. The CEO touched on topics ranging from orbital data centers to mass drivers on the moon, but the centerpiece of his address was the idea of searching for traces of ancient alien civilizations. The full recording of the meeting appeared online, allowing a closer look at the ambition of Musk's plans and how he presents them.

The speech's main thesis concerns the necessity of leaving Earth to advance artificial intelligence and understand the universe. Musk argues humanity uses only about one percent of Earth's potential energy, and accessing even one millionth of the sun's energy would mean roughly a million times more energy than current civilization uses. Musk emphasizes that Earth is merely a "tiny, tiny dust mote in a vast darkness," while the sun comprises 99.8% of all mass in the solar system.

The closing part of the speech focused on the long-term perspective of space exploration. Musk envisions the possibility of encountering aliens and discovering civilizations that lasted for millions of years.

We'll find the remnants of ancient alien civilizations. But the only way we're gonna do that is if we go out there and we explore.

The meeting took place against a backdrop of high-level resignations at xAI. Many of the company's 11 original cofounders have already left, including Tony Wu, who resigned the day before the meeting. Musk hopes to raise $50 billion from investors after the SpaceX and xAI IPO, with potential shareholders including pension and investment funds.