Twitter owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced a new artificial intelligence company, xAI.
“Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality,” Musk tweeted Wednesday. The xAI website adds that the company’s goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe.”
xAI has tweeted only once so far, to ask: “What are the most fundamental unanswered questions?”
A team of 12 people, including Musk, was announced as working for xAI. They say they have experience across OpenAI, DeepMind, Google Research, Microsoft Research and Tesla. They’re also being advised by the director of the nonprofit Center for AI Safety.
The xAI team will be hosting a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, July 14, where they might talk about what exactly the company will actually do.
The announcement follows Musk filing to incorporate an AI company earlier this year after reports he’s planning to create a ChatGPT rival.
OpenAI’s GPT-4 launched in mid-March. It’s the latest version of the large language model that powers the ChatGPT AI chatbot, which among other things is advanced enough to pass the bar exam. In February, Microsoft entered the AI chatbot realm with Bing, which makes use of ChatGPT, and rival Google eventually followed with AI Bard. Chinese giant Alibaba also unveiled a ChatGPT rival with both Chinese and English capabilities.
CNET has broken down ChatGPT as well as Bing and Google Bard to work out which is the most helpful.
Despite announcing his own AI company, Musk was among more than 1,000 tech folks who signed an open letter in March urging labs to take at least a six-month pause in AI development due to “profound risks” to society from increasingly capable AI engines. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, along with other scientists and notable figures, also signed a statement warning of the risks of AI in June. And Microsoft in May released a 40-page report saying AI regulation is needed to stay ahead of potential risks and bad actors.
Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.
