(AP) — Elon Musk has announced the launch of his artificial intelligence company, xAI, which aims to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
xAI’s mission is “to understand the true nature of the universe,” although few other details have been revealed about the startup.
Under Musk’s leadership, xAI has recruited top AI researchers from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla. The company, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, operates independently of Twitter’s new parent company, X Corp., but will collaborate closely with both Tesla and X Corp. to make progress towards its mission.
Musk co-founded and financially supported OpenAI in its early stages but left the organization a few years ago. Since then, he has grown critical of OpenAI’s success and commercial ties to Microsoft. The launch of xAI follows Musk’s comments about the company in an interview with Tucker Carlson in April.
In the interview, Musk expressed concerns about bias in OpenAI’s chatbot and stated his intention to build an alternative AI that seeks maximum truth and understanding of the universe.
xAI reflects Musk’s longstanding concerns about the potential risks posed by AI systems to humanity. He believes that an AI that seeks to understand humanity is less likely to pose a threat.
Earlier this year, Musk joined other tech leaders in calling for a six-month pause in the development of AI systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4. It was around this time that he began working on his own AI company, as indicated by Nevada business records.