In a surprising move, renowned CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, unveiled his latest endeavor on Wednesday—a new start-up called xAI, focused on the development of artificial intelligence. This announcement comes as Musk hinted at the launch of an alternative to ChatGPT, a popular AI model.
Reports from April, as detailed by the Financial Times, suggested that Musk had received a substantial number of GPUs from Nvidia to aid in the creation of a potential language model. During the same period, Musk provided insights into his plans for an AI model known as “TruthGPT,” which he described as the ultimate truth-seeking AI.
xAI team members from leading AI companies
xAI boasts an impressive team of experts from leading AI companies, as indicated on its freshly-launched website. Elon Musk will take the helm as the team lead, accompanied by esteemed professionals who have played pivotal roles in various AI ventures. Also, notable members include former executives from Twitter, OpenAI, DeepMind, Tesla, Microsoft Research, and Google Research—some of whom contributed to the development of OpenAI’s GPT-4 and DeepMind’s Alphacode. Among the prominent individuals are Manuel Kroiss and Babuschkin Igor from DeepMind, Christian Szegedy from Google Research, and Tony Wu from the University of Toronto.
xAI to rival ChatGPT
According to insiders, Musk’s ambition with xAI is to position the company as a formidable competitor to the likes of Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google—renowned developers of AI models such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Bard. Interestingly, Musk, who was once a part of OpenAI, has publicly accused the organization of mischief in the creation of the AI.
Musk has been vocal about the need for AI regulation. A few months ago, he and some tech leaders advocated for a 6-month pause in the unregulated artificial intelligence race– specifically for the development of models higher than GPT-4. A few months ago, he joined forces with other tech leaders to propose a six-month pause in unregulated AI advancements, particularly models surpassing GPT-4.
One of the advisors to xAI, Dan Hendrycks, also the director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Safety, previously penned a letter stressing the need to prioritize mitigating risks such as human extinction, nuclear warfare, and pandemics caused by AI.
Many ethicists and professionals criticized the letter, stating that placing too much attention on Artificial Intelligence’s capability and its risks will only distract people from the actual damages.
More on xAI
In a series of Twitter posts, renowned entrepreneur Elon Musk shared intriguing insights about xAI. As evident from their website, xAI is actively seeking top-tier talent, particularly experienced researchers and engineers, to join their ranks. xAI has already garnered significant attention on social media, with its Twitter account amassing an impressive following of over three hundred thousand followers. Also, the company plans to host a live chat on Twitter Spaces on Friday, providing the general public with an opportunity to ask questions.
Greg Yang, co-founder of xAI, shed light on the company’s strategy to propel artificial intelligence into the next phase. By delving into the “mathematics of deep learning,” Yang believes xAI will unravel the intricacies of AI algorithms, leading to breakthroughs in understanding and application.
Interestingly, Musk’s recent announcement comes at a challenging time for the tech titan, as his 44 billion USD acquisition, Twitter, faces fierce competition from a formidable new rival named Threads. Developed by Meta, the tech giant behind leading social media platforms, Thread has already achieved a staggering milestone, surpassing over 100 million registrations within a mere week of its launch.
Also, Twitter has been contending with the aftermath of controversial strategic shifts, which have resulted in the exodus of some advertisers and users.
Photo Credit: PC Guide
