Elon Musk Launches AI Startup After Warning About Generative AI Platforms: What Is xAI And Who Will Work On It

Elon Musk has announced his own AI company, called xAI. Although Musk claims the new company wants to "understand reality", it will most probably end up competing with big technology firms in the AI field such as Google, Microsoft, and others.

After raising multiple concerns about Generative AI, Elon Musk has unveiled his highly anticipated artificial intelligence startup, xAI. Let's look at the latest development and try to figure out what xAI will work on and who will work at the new AI company.

What Is xAI, Elon Musk's New AI Startup?

Elon Musk has launched xAI. The Artificial Intelligence startup's website went live this week. The startup will be led by Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of Twitter.

The xAI website has indicated that Elon Musk will hold a Twitter Spaces event on July 14, 2023. Musk registered a firm named X.AI Corp in March 2023, which is incorporated in Nevada, a state filing indicates.

xAI Corp. lists Musk as the sole director and Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk's family office, as a secretary. There's no information about the company, its activity, or its finances. However, this information should start trickling in as the company begins operations and announce new projects.

Incidentally, xAI Corp. is looking for interested candidates who want to join the startup. Candidates can fill out an application form online to approach the company. the company wants to hire experienced engineers and researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area to join its team.

The current team at xAI claims to have worked at multiple organizations, including "DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and the University of Toronto". Basically, Musk has poached talent from companies that have been deeply involved in AI.

Specifically speaking, the founding team members include Igor Babuschkin, formerly of Google's DeepMind; Tony Wu, a former Google employee; Christian Szegedy, a research scientist at Google; and Greg Yang, who previously worked at Microsoft.

Why Is Elon Musk Starting A New AI Startup?

Elon Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT. Simply put, Musk was one of the pioneers and visionaries in the field of Generative AI.

For reasons best known to Musk, the billionaire stepped down from OpenAI's board in 2018. Needless to add, Microsoft quickly grabbed the opportunity and heavily invested in OpenAI. The company produced and launched ChatGPT, which is now the leading Generative AI platform.

Apart from ChatGPT, Google's Bard, Midjourney, and dozens of other Generative AI platforms are rapidly gaining users. OpenAI even offers ChatGPT Plus, a paid subscription that grants access to the latest GPT-4.

xAI is a separate entity from X Corp, which is another company of Elon Musk. However, it is quite likely that xAI may draw resources from X Corp. It is amply clear that after badmouthing Generative AI and calling for stricter regulations, Elon Musk has joined the bandwagon to develop an AI company and consequentially a Generative AI platform. After all, it is nearly impossible to ignore the rising use of AI by the masses.