July 13, 2023
Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has launched a new AI startup called xAI. The company’s goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe,” according to its website.
xAI is led by Musk and a team of research engineers who have previously worked for Google Research, DeepMind, OpenAI, Microsoft Research, and Tesla. The company’s website says that its team is “focused on large language models, deep learning, and neural networks.”
Musk’s announcement of xAI comes amid a heated race across tech giants to develop generative AI products for businesses and consumers. Musk’s motivation behind venturing into the AI is reportedly to enhance their reasoning capabilities and minimize their inclination to fabricate the truth. The purpose of xAI, as stated by Musk, is to comprehend the true nature of the universe. To shed more light on the venture’s objectives, xAI has scheduled a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, July 14.
Musk’s goal to construct his own version of OpenAI’s massive language model technology, inviting engineers to join his cause, was originally reported in March. Igor Babuschkin, a Deepmind and OpenAI engineer, is said to have joined xAI, with his name posted directly after Musk’s on the company’s website.
It is unknown what products or services xAI will provide. However, according to the company’s website, it will be “making announcements soon.”
The sources for this piece include articles in Axios and TheRegister.
