Elon Musk Creates New AI Company

Facts

• Tesla CEO Elon Musk has founded an artificial intelligence (AI) company called X.AI that would reportedly rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, according to Nevada business records.¹
• According to the state filing, Musk is the only listed director of X.AI, while Jared Birchall, director of Musk’s family office, is listed as the company’s secretary.²
• X.AI, which has authorized the sale of 100M shares for the privately held company, was incorporated on March 9.³
• According to a Friday report from the Financial Times, Musk is seeking funding from SpaceX and Tesla investors to get X.AI started and compete with the Microsoft-backed OpenAI.⁴
• The report — citing people familiar with the matter — adds that Musk is recruiting top artificial intelligence researchers and engineers from AI firms across the globe and has secured at least 10K of Nvidia's GPU processors to power the venture.⁴
• Meanwhile, Musk has been openly opposed to OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 but left in 2018, and recently signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on AI models more advanced than OpenAI’s GPT-4.⁵

Sources: ¹Wall Street Journal, ²Reuters, ³FOX News, ⁴FT and ⁵Verge.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by Politico. Ironically, Musk has launched an AI firm after having repeatedly warned against the dangers of AI. Clearly, he left OpenAI over a power struggle and not over the potentially existential threats generative AI may pose. Musk's motives for starting an AI company are purely business — he wants to get even with OpenAI and reap billions of the futuristic technology.
• Right narrative, as provided by FOX News. ChatGPT praises left-leaning politicians like Joe Biden but refuses to do the same for right-winger Donald Trump. It's dangerously biased, with a distinctly liberal viewpoint on issues like diversity and transgender rights, which is why Musk is working to fight “woke” AI. Musk just wants to shake up the basis of today’s generative AI apps, challenge what they produce, and possibly eliminate problematic proclivities.

Predictions