The multibillionaire businessman Elon Musk unveiled his long rumoured artificial intelligence venture xAI on Wednesday. He also introduced a team of engineers from the same major US technology companies that he plans to take on in his effort to develop a ChatGPT substitute.
Musk, who is now the CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, the CEO of the rocket launch firm SpaceX, and the owner of Twitter, will serve as the startup's CEO. Musk has previously stated that the development of AI should be put on hold and that the industry requires control. He has frequently expressed his worries about the potential "civilisational destruction" that AI could cause.
Musk outlined his strategy for creating a more secure AI during a Twitter Spaces event on Wednesday night. xAI will aim to develop a "maximally curious" AI rather than overtly coding morality into its AI, he said.
From an AI safety perspective, Musk added, "If it tried to understand the true nature of the universe, that's actually the best thing I can come up with. From the perspective that humanity is simply much more interesting than not-humanity, I believe it will be pro-humanity."
The arrival of super intelligence, or AI that is smarter than humans, was another prediction made by Musk during the next five to six years. Musk co-founded OpenAI, the business that created ChatGPT, in 2015, although he left the board of directors in 2018.
On July 14, xAI will host a Twitter Spaces event, according to its website.
Igor Babuschkin, a former engineer at Google's DeepMind, Tony Wu, Christian Szegedy, a former research scientist at Google, and Greg Yang, a former employee of Microsoft, make up the xAI team.
According to a state filing, Musk registered X.AI Corp, a Nevada-incorporated company, in March. Musk is listed as the company's only director while Jared Birchall, the family office's managing director, is listed as the secretary.
A maximal truth-seeking AI called TruthGPT, which will compete with Google's Bard and Microsoft's Bing AI in its quest to comprehend the nature of the world, was announced by Musk in April.
Prior to the introduction of Bard and Bing AI, OpenAI's debut of the well-known chatbot ChatGPT in November of last year brought generative AI to the public's attention.
The xAI team will receive advice from Dan Hendrycks, who serves as director of the Centre for AI Safety and focuses on the dangers of AI.
According to the website, Musk's new business is independent of X Corp but will collaborate closely with Tesla, Twitter, and other businesses.