Elon Musk has officially launched his highly anticipated artificial intelligence startup, xAI. As per reports, the team behind xAI consists of engineers from major US technology companies which the SpaceX CEO hopes to challenge with his alternative to ChatGPT.
The formation of the AI startup comes with the launch of its website, which on Wednesday, unveiled a team-up of engineers who previously worked at Alphabet-owned Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Musk announced the formation of xAI, stating, “Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality.”
What xAI hopes to achieve
As per the xAI website, “The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe.”
The moves are being seen as Musk’s attempt to position xAI as a competitor to OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, which are behind leading chatbots like ChatGPT, Bard and Claude.
Team behind xAI
In the past Musk, who serves as the CEO of Tesla and is the owner of Twitter, has been vocal about his concerns regarding AI development and emphasising the need for regulation in the industry has even called for a pause in its progress. However, as per Reuters, he will lead xAI in its quest to challenge major tech firms.
The xAI team includes notable individuals such as Igor Babuschkin, a former engineer at DeepMind, Tony Wu, who previously worked at Google, Christian Szegedy, a former research scientist at Google, and Greg Yang, who was earlier associated with Microsoft.
As per a state filing, in March, Musk registered a company named X.AI Corp in Nevada. The document lists him as the sole director of the firm, while Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk’s family office, is listed as the secretary.
Dan Hendrycks, who currently serves as the director of the Center for AI Safety, with his work focusing on the risks associated with AI, will serve as an adviser to the xAI team.
As per reports, Musk incorporated xAI in Nevada in March. Previously, he had changed the name of Twitter to X Corp in some financial filings, however on xAI’s website, the company notes that it is a separate entity from X Corp, adding that it will “work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to make progress towards our mission.”
Musk’s AI dream
Earlier this year, in April, Musk announced his intention to launch TruthGPT, an AI system focused on seeking maximum truth, to rival Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing AI, which as per him will aim to understand the nature of the universe.
Generative AI gained significant attention with the release of OpenAI’s popular chatbot, ChatGPT, in November of the previous year, preceding the launches of Bard and Bing AI.
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