Elon Musk thinks AI will kill traditional smartphones, is Samsung safe?

Elon Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast last year and shared some intriguing thoughts on the future of smartphones. Since Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone brand, his comments indirectly hint at where the Galaxy line could be headed.

Modern mobile devices are incredibly fast and powerful, yet they still follow a familiar interaction pattern. Almost every time you use a Galaxy phone, you unlock it, tap the screen to open an app, and wait for the device to respond. Musk predicts this will change “in five or six years” as AI becomes more capable and integrated into daily device use.

Yes, fingerprint sensors, touchscreens, and mobile SoCs are lightning-fast, especially in high-end devices. But the conventional usage loop — unlock, tap to launch an app, wait — remains relatively slow and creates friction for users who expect instantaneous experiences.

That is about to shift. Musk foresees context-aware AI taking over, predicting your actions before you even take them. Smartphones themselves may not look dramatically different, but the way we interact with them could be completely transformed, all thanks to AI.

Samsung is already leading in mobile AI through its early implementation of Galaxy AI and integration with Google’s AI systems. If Musk’s timeline holds, the Galaxy S31 — or whatever Samsung’s flagship will be called at the decade’s turn — could be a genuinely AI-driven device that makes today’s smartphones feel primitive.

This might also explain why Musk, despite spearheading multiple cutting-edge tech ventures, hasn’t yet entered the smartphone market. If a mobile revolution is imminent, now could be the worst time to jump into the race. Why make a smartphone now when the rules are about to be rewritten?

Meanwhile, Elon Musk's companies continue to develop brain-computer interfaces through Neuralink and Grok AI.

In other news, Elon Musk recently pushed back against Apple's AI deal with Google, calling it a concentration of power.