Elon Musk announced xAI, a new organization with an expansive stated goal: to “understand the true nature of the universe.” The announcement introduced its leadership and advisers, but left the organization’s research plans for a later presentation.
A broad mission, few details
At the time of the announcement, xAI said more information would be shared during a Twitter Spaces event on Friday. Its splash page listed a 12-person team led by Musk and people with experience at DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla and the University of Toronto.
The organization would receive advice from Dan Hendrycks, director at the Center for AI Safety, an AI research nonprofit. It also said it would work with Twitter and Tesla to make progress toward its mission. The announcement did not explain what that collaboration would involve or how the mission would be measured.
The name connects xAI to X Corp., the name assigned to Twitter since early April, and to Musk’s broader “X” vision of an “everything app.” The relationship between those businesses and the new organization was not detailed in the announcement.
The team offers clues about its work
Although xAI had not outlined a research agenda, the backgrounds of its founding members pointed toward familiar areas of artificial intelligence. Many had worked on large language models, the kind of systems associated with OpenAI’s GPT-4, or on reinforcement learning.
Reinforcement learning trains models to complete tasks by rewarding them for successful performance. Experience in these areas suggests possible directions for xAI, but the article’s account does not establish which methods or products the organization would pursue.
Musk had previously described a desire to create “TruthGPT,” which he called a “maximum-truth-seeking AI,” during an interview with Tucker Carlson in April. The article suggested that xAI might begin with that idea, potentially creating a text-generating system Musk views as more “truthful” than existing tools. That was presented as a possibility, not a confirmed product plan.
Earlier reports pointed to an AI product
Before xAI’s launch, reports had described preparations for a generative AI effort. Business Insider reported earlier in the year that Musk had bought thousands of GPUs to power an upcoming product. The Financial Times also reported that he planned an AI firm to compete with the Microsoft-backed OpenAI, and that he had reportedly sought funding from SpaceX and Tesla investors.
The article also noted Musk’s suggestion that Twitter’s data could be used to train technology similar to ChatGPT. That possibility sits alongside xAI’s stated plan to work with Twitter, but the announcement did not specify whether or how Twitter data would be used.
A history of competition with OpenAI
Musk’s new AI effort followed a long-running and increasingly competitive relationship with OpenAI. OpenAI began as a nonprofit in 2015 and received $1 billion in donations from Musk and others. The source says Musk became disillusioned as the company shifted from open-source research toward primarily commercial projects.
He had served on OpenAI’s board, recruited key employees from the company to work on Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assistance technology, and publicly criticized OpenAI. He resigned from its board in 2018. More recently, he ended OpenAI’s access to Twitter data, arguing that the company was not paying enough under a $2-million-a-year licensing deal established before he became Twitter CEO.
That history helps explain the competitive backdrop for xAI, but it does not answer what the new organization will build. At launch, its universe-spanning mission, experienced team and links to Musk’s other companies were clear; its specific research program remained to be announced.