On Wednesday, Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, made a noteworthy announcement regarding the launch of a new artificial intelligence company called xAI, with the primary objective to “understand the true nature of the universe.”
Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2023
Greg Yang, one of the co-founders of xAI, stated that the startup will focus on exploring the “mathematics of deep learning,” a crucial aspect of AI. The company aims to develop a comprehensive “theory of everything” specifically tailored for large neural networks, with the ultimate goal of propelling AI to new heights and advancements.
Several reports have linked Musk to AI development following his criticism of the way companies, including OpenAI that he cofounded, are running the technology. Early this year, Musk reportedly started recruiting scientists to develop an alternative chatbot to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
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In April, The Financial Times reported that the entrepreneur had secured thousands of GPU processors from Nvidia in order to power a potential large language model, and was already assembling a team of researchers and engineers to work on the AI project dubbed “TruthGPT.”
During that very month, Musk disclosed his plans for a novel AI tool named “TruthGPT” in a recorded interview on Fox News Channel. He expressed concerns about the current focus of AI companies, suggesting that they may prioritize systems that align with political correctness rather than emphasizing objective truth.
In March, Musk and Jared Birchall, who oversees Musk’s family office, purportedly registered xAI as a company in Nevada, as indicated by a filing with the Nevada Secretary of State.
It’s worth mentioning that he had previously altered the name of Twitter to “X Corp.” according to financial filings. However, on the official website of xAI, the company explicitly states its independence from X Corp., adding that it will collaborate with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies in order to advance its mission.
The company’s website said Musk and his team will share more information in a live Twitter Spaces chat on Friday.
xAI, which launched its website on Wednesday, revealed that Elon Musk will head the team. The company’s roster of executives comprises professionals with extensive experience in artificial intelligence, hailing from prominent organizations like Google’s DeepMind, Microsoft Corp., Tesla Inc., and esteemed academic institutions such as the University of Toronto.
Team members behind xAI are alumni of DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Twitter, and Tesla, who have worked on projects including DeepMind’s AlphaCode and OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 chatbots.
According to the xAI website, the company has enlisted Dan Hendrycks, the director of the Center for AI Safety as an advisor. This advisory role aligns with the center’s focus on cautioning against the potential existential risks associated with the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
The launch of xAI will see an increase in competition in the artificial intelligence industry, where companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are already fighting for dominance. Although with the backing of Microsoft which has invested $13 billion, OpenAI leads the pack, xAI led by Musk is expected to cause disruption.
With the launch of xAI, the 52-year-old South African-born serial entrepreneur now heads six companies: Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, Neuralink, the Boring Co., and now xAI.