Elon Musk launches long-awaited AI start-up in a bid to rival ChatGPT

Musk wants the new AI startup to accelerate breakthroughs in science and protect against closed-source, for-profit models dominating the industry.

Elon Musk is one of the founders of OpenAI, an organisation originally designed to be a not-for-profit, open-source company that would bring research on artificial intelligence into the public domain. Since then, Musk left the board and the company transformed into a closed-source, for-profit business, precisely what the billionaire tech mogul didn’t want to happen.

Responding to these developments, Musk recently announced his long-awaited AI startup, xAI. This new venture will challenge the current market paradigm, where big businesses control all the most advanced models, transferring power back to the public.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO says he wants xAI to help avoid what he calls “civilisational destruction” that could result from a wayward AI created at one of these firms. The best policy is to fight fire with fire, he believes, developing new open-source, public AI platforms to counterbalance Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, and other dominant players.

But the launch of xAI is not solely about defending humanity from disaster. It’s also about building a better world. Musk says he wants to use the firm to enable science to understand the true nature of the universe. He believes that AI-based intelligence may yield novel insights into reality that have stymied professional academic and commercial researchers until now. Breakthroughs could include reconciling quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of gravity or understanding how our universe could give rise to consciousness.

To minimise the risks posed by AI, the new AI startup will feature an all-star employee roster. The firm’s team includes several former Google, Microsoft and OpenAI employees who presumably with Musk’s mission to ensure AI remains egalitarian and safe for the long-term future of the human race. Many of these professionals worked on landmark projects in the past, including GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, indicating that xAI will become a significant player in the near future.

There are also strong business reasons why Musk is launching his rival to ChatGPT; he wants his other ventures to benefit from it. Research and breakthroughs from xAI will become part of his plans to make electric vehicles autonomous and land the first humans on Mars. Insights from the firm’s open-source AI advances may lead to the development of level 5 autonomy (full self-driving) or help optimise resource use on missions to the red planet.

The management structure of the new firm is skeletal. Official filings show Musk as the sole director, and Jared Birchall as the company secretary. 

News in the Financial Times reports that Musk has obtained thousands of high-end GPUs to begin training new models. The firm is likely to copy its rivals during the early stages as it plays catch-up before developing new in-house systems it hopes will enable it to provide the best services on the market.

For consumers, an alternative to ChatGPT is welcome. xAI is a way to prevent corporate gatekeepers from controlling all intelligent systems, now and in the future. When will we see it in the form of an AI-powered live chat tool for websites? We still don’t know!