Elon Musk launches new company focused on artificial intelligence

“The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe,” according to its website

By Kelly McClure

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published July 12, 2023 5:35PM (EDT)

Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France.  (Chesnot/Getty Images)
Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France. (Chesnot/Getty Images)

Elon Musk announced his latest endeavor on Wednesday, an artificial intelligence company called xAI to rival ChatGPT in its efforts to better provide a "maximum truth-seeking AI." Advised by Dan Hendrycks, who currently serves as the director of the Center for AI Safety, the goal of the new company "is to understand the true nature of the universe," according to its website. 

Musk's xAI team — alumni of DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Twitter and Tesla — will provide greater detail on the company via a live Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, but as of what's known now, it will work to combat Musk's fear that "AI companies are prioritizing systems that are "politically correct."  

Per CNN, "Musk was an early backer of ChatGPT-creator OpenAI, but later criticized the company for inputting safeguards that aim to prevent the viral chatbot from spewing biased or sexist responses." In their coverage of the xAI announce, a tweet from Musk back in December in which he said, "The danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie – is deadly," is used to highlight what he's going for.  

 


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