The billionaire Elon Musk has founded a new AI company called X.AI, The Verge (via the WSJ) reports.
Musk is already the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter, but his new company will be dedicated to AI development. The X.AI is registered in Nevada on March 9th, 2023. It sees Musk as its director and Jared Birchall, the director of Musk’s family office, as its secretary. Musk’s latest company has also authorized the sale of 100 million shares.
According to the filing details, X.AI is a subsidiary of X Holdings Corp, owned by Elon Musk. It seems the billionaire is creating a portfolio of X-named companies as he recently changed the Twitter name to X Corp. He also proposed a vision for an “everything app” called “X.”
Elon Musk might challenge OpenAI with X.AI
X.AI is not Musk’s first foray into the world of AI. He is also the co-founder of OpenAI, a research organization dedicated to advancing AI technology, and the parent company of ChatGPT. Musk has long been a vocal advocate for the development of AI. He has also warned about the potential risks of the technology. Elon Musk was one of the signatories of the recent warning letter about artificial intelligence, which called for a six-month suspension of all AI experiments.
Musk left OpenAI in 2018 after disagreements with chief executive Sam Altman. As per WSJ report, Elon Musk believed ChatGPT is politically biased, and he wants to create safer AI models. OpenAI is now mostly controlled by Microsoft, but Musk’s recent moves suggest a stubborn rival is on the way.
The billionaire has yet to stay tight-lipped about the X.AI goals and whether it will launch a rival for ChatGPT. Meanwhile, Musk has recruited several AI researchers in the past few months. This includes Igor Babuschkin, a former staff research engineer at DeepMind AI lab. The people familiar with the case also say Musk is trying to hire some OpenAI employees.
The launch of X.AI coincides with a report from Business Insider that revealed Musk had purchased thousands of GPUs for a generative AI product. In response to the news, Musk just said, “it seems like everyone and their dog is buying GPUs at this point.”