Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has revealed the establishment of a startup focused on artificial intelligence (AI). The newly formed company, named xAI, comprises a team of engineers with experience at renowned organizations such as OpenAI and Google.
It is worth noting that Musk has previously expressed his belief in the necessity of regulating AI development and has advocated for a pause in its advancements.
He said the start-up was created to “understand reality”.
It is unclear how much funding the entity has, what its specific objectives are or what kind artificial intelligence the company wants to focus on.
The company’s website says the goal of xAI is to “understand the true nature of the universe.” The new firm will host a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, which may reveal further details about its aims.
Elon Musk was the one of the original backers of OpenAI, which went on to create the popular large language model ChatGPT, which has – often controversially – become popular for uses such as assisting students with writing homework.
However, the billionaire’s relationship with the company has soured. He has criticised ChatGPT for having a liberal bias.
“What we need is TruthGPT”, Mr Musk tweeted in February.
Management of ChatGPT
Additionally, he criticises the management of ChatGPT and the company’s close association with Microsoft.
“It does seem weird that something can be a nonprofit, open source and somehow transform itself into a for-profit, closed source,” Musk said in a CNBC interview.
In March Mr Musk signed an open letter calling for a pause to “Giant AI Experiments”, which to date has around 33,000 signatures.
In an interview with the BBC in April Mr Musk said he had been worrying about AI safety for over a decade.
“I believe we should establish a regulatory body for AI oversight to ensure that it does not present a danger to the public,” he stated.
Elon Musk has also pitted himself against Artificial Intelligence companies due to the data they use to train chatbots – the software that learns how humans interacts by scraping masses of data from various sources to fuel its knowledge and interaction styles.
The billionaire believes that individuals or entities scrape vast amounts of data from Twitter‘s platform and argues that the company should receive appropriate compensation for it.
Mr Musk purchased the microblogging platform in a deal worth billions, before making sweeping changes which led to many leaving the platform in protest, including the producer of shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes, as well as model Gigi Hadid and comedian and actor Stephen Fry.