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Elon Musk

What Does Elon Musk’s Mysterious New AI Company ‘xAI’ Do, Exactly?


Elon Musk’s strange fascination with the letter X continues as our favourite tech overlord recently announced a new company dedicated to artificial intelligence, dubbed ‘xAI.’ Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT burst onto the scene, the AI world has been in a frenzy. Even Musk, who has been a vocal critic of AI, is now jumping on the bandwagon with xAI, whose ultimate goal is “to understand the true nature of the universe.” The company’s new website details its mission and team, mentioning how it’s completely different from X Corp, “but will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies” to help it reach its goals.

Musk will personally spearhead the core team, which comprises a talented group of AI industry veterans from renowned tech giants like DeepMind, Microsoft, and Tesla, as well as esteemed academic institutions such as the University of Toronto. Noteworthy members include Igor Babuschkin (formerly associated with DeepMind), Manuel Kroiss (DeepMind), Tony Wu (University of Toronto), and Christian Szegedy (Google Research). Additional individuals contributing their expertise are Jimmy Ba, Toby Pohlen, Ross Nordeen, Kyle Kosic, Greg Yang, Guodong Zhang, and Zihang Dai.

The xAI team also announced a Twitter Spaces discussion, inviting listeners to engage with the team and ask questions. Although the specific time has not been specified, this event will offer an opportunity to connect with the team and gain deeper insights into xAI and its future plans. Musk’s new AI company made headlines back in April when filings revealed that the Tesla owner had founded the company in Nevada.

Musk teased his new company’s launch on Twitter, which sparked curiosity amongst users. Sharing a photo of Tesla’s Cybertruck with a camouflage-like pattern he captioned it “Practically invisible.” Beyond the striking appearance of the Tesla truck itself, what’s interesting to note is the “X.AI” subtly displayed on a building window in the background.

Musk has never shied away from expressing his views on the potential risks associated with advanced AI systems. During an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News in April, Musk expressed his concerns about AI models being trained to be “politically correct.” To address this issue, he pledged to develop an AI system called “Truth GPTthat would prioritise seeking maximum truth.

While Elon’s foray into AI with his new company may not be surprising, what remains a mystery are his ultimate plans for the company and how he intends to understand the “true nature of the universe.”

Elon Musk
Image: Getty Images

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