The world’s wealthiest individual, Elon Musk, has recently unveiled his latest startup venture called xAI. Musk has assembled a team of seasoned professionals in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to establish this new enterprise. However, Musk’s announcement on Twitter provides only limited details about the objectives of the startup, leaving its purpose somewhat ambiguous for now.
This is not Musk’s first involvement in the realm of AI. Back in 2015, he became an investor in OpenAI, a non-profit research lab dedicated to AI exploration. However, Musk gradually distanced himself from the organization, which eventually split into two entities: one focused on profit-driven endeavors, and the other remaining committed to its non-profit nature.
The profit-driven arm of OpenAI gained significant recognition last year with the launch of ChatGPT, a conversational chatbot that has found applications in generating content, ideas, and code for users.
Musk’s Stance on AI Deployment Musk has been vocal about his concerns regarding OpenAI’s trajectory and AI in general. In a recent interview with the BBC, he revealed his longstanding worries about AI safety, spanning over a decade.
During a CNBC interview, Musk raised questions about the transformation of OpenAI from a non-profit, open-source organization to a for-profit entity that began withholding information about its technology. He also expressed caution about OpenAI’s close ties to Microsoft and the potential impact of the latter’s investments on the former’s future growth.
In March, Musk joined other notable figures in signing a letter calling for a six-month pause on Giant AI Experiments. However, Interesting Engineering reported a month later that Musk had established his own AI startup called xAI, which is now taking shape.
What is xAI?
Currently, limited information is available about the specific plans of xAI. The company has a website that lists several individuals with previous experience at prominent companies like DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, and Tesla, among others, who have now joined the xAI team.
Notable names include Igor Babuschkin, Manuel Kroiss, Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, and Christian Szegedy, who have made significant contributions to advancements in the AI field, such as AlphaCode, Minerva, GPT 3.5, and the upcoming GPT-4.
The announcement confirms that Elon Musk will lead the team, with Dan Hendrycks, the current Director at the Center for AI Safety, serving as the team’s advisor.
xAI has clarified that it operates independently from X Corp, dispelling any notion that it is an AI project directly tied to X (formerly Twitter). However, this statement does not rule out the possibility of future collaboration with Musk’s other ventures like Tesla or X.
More details are expected to emerge as xAI prepares to host a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, July 14.
Nevertheless, the fundamental question remains: what unique approach does Musk intend to take with a diverse group of individuals who are actively involved in developing the very AI he strongly opposes? Additionally, if his intention is to open-source AI, how does xAI plan to generate revenue?
The Twitter Space event on Friday promises to be an intriguing platform for further insights and discussions.
