Elon Musk founded his AI firm, xAI, with the goal of developing an alternative to ChatGPT. Musk intends to create a maximally inquisitive’ AI that shares human ideals. xAI’s workforce comprises engineers from prominent tech companies, and Musk will run the startup directly.
Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, officially unveiled his much anticipated artificial intelligence business, xAI, on Wednesday. The company’s crew is made up of engineers hired from large U.S. technology corporations, which Musk hopes to compete with in his quest to establish an alternative to ChatGPT.
Musk, who is already well-known as the CEO of Tesla, an electric vehicle maker, as well as the CEO of SpaceX, a rocket launch firm, and the owner of Twitter, will personally run the venture. He has been outspoken about his conviction that AI development should be temporarily paused and that the sector deserves oversight, citing fears of “civilizational destruction” brought by AI.
Here are 7 things you need to understand about xAI:
A “maximally curious” artificial intelligence platform
Elon Musk outlined his idea for producing safer artificial intelligence during a Twitter Spaces event on Wednesday evening. He stated that xAI will not prioritize overtly building morality into its AI systems. Instead, the company’s goal is to build an AI that is “maximally curious.” Musk believes that cultivating a high degree of interest in AI will organically align its behavior with human values and lessen the possible hazards connected with AI development.
“From an AI safety standpoint, the best thing I can think of is for it to try to understand the true nature of the universe.” “I believe it will be pro-humanity because humanity is simply more interesting than not-humanity,” Musk added.
The definition of xAI
According to NDTV, the word “xAI” is frequently used in the technology world as an acronym for Explainable AI or Interpretable AI. This notion focuses on allowing humans to understand the reasoning behind artificial intelligence systems’ judgments or forecasts.
The xAI team has organized a Twitter Spaces event, a virtual gathering, on July 14 to shed light on the company’s aims and vision. They will answer questions and share insights into the company’s operations throughout this session.
Superintelligence’s Timeline
Musk predicted that superintelligence, or artificial intelligence that outperforms human intelligence, would develop within the next five to six years.
The xAI squad
The xAI team is made up of renowned individuals with substantial expertise in the technology business. This comprises Igor Babuschkin, a former DeepMind engineer at Google, Tony Wu, a former Google employee, Christian Szegedy, a former Google research scientist, and Greg Yang, a former Microsoft employee.
Musk’s involvement with xAI
According to a state document, Musk formed a Nevada corporation named X.AI Corp in March. Musk is designated as the firm’s only director, with Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk’s family office, serving as secretary.
Dan Hendricks, the current head of the Centre for AI Safety, has been named an advisor to the xAI project. Hendricks specializes in identifying the dangers linked with artificial intelligence, making his knowledge helpful to the team.
xAI is not the same as X Corp.
According to the xAI website, Musk’s newly founded firm functions independently from X Corp but seeks to retain tight relationships with important companies such as Twitter and Tesla, among others. To grow its workforce, xAI has announced ambitions to hire competent engineers and researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Investor information
xAI apparently purchased 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) in March, according to Time Magazine. These hardware components are required for the creation and operation of powerful artificial intelligence systems. Although xAI has not disclosed any financial information, the Financial Times reported in April that Musk was looking into getting finance from investors linked with SpaceX and Tesla, both of which he leads.
