Artificial intelligence and machine learning will create computers so sophisticated and godlike that humans will need to implant "neural laces" in their brains to keep up, Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told a crowd of tech leaders this week.

While Musk's description of an injectable human-computer link may sound like science fiction, top tech executives repeatedly said that artificial intelligence was on the verge of changing everyday life, during discussion at a conference by online publication Recode this week.

It is no secret that tech companies are diving into AI analytics research, an industry that will grow to $70 billion by 2020 from just $8.2 billion in 2013, according to a Bank of America report citing data from market researchers IDC.