Elon Musk Started his Own AI Start-up, xAI

Elon Musk announced that he has created a new artificial intelligence company called xAI. The founder of SpaceX and Twitter owner said that the primary mission of the xAI is to get more into understanding the depths of the true essence and nature of the universe.

The AI company xAI hired researchers from OpenAI, Google and other tech giants company who contributed to significant projects like DeepMind’s AlphaCode and OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 chatbots. Musk tweeted that the goal is “to understand reality.”

“The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe,” the xAI website states. 

According to the new company’s website, xAI will be a separate firm from Musk’s other businesses such as Twitter and Tesla.

The company will focus on studying the “mathematics of deep learning,” according to

cofounder of xAI Greg Yang. Their aim is to develop a comprehensive understanding of large neural networks, which they believe will lead to significant advancement in AI.

Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center for AI Safety said in an email shared with CBS News, “AIs could be used by malicious actors to design novel bioweapons more lethal than natural pandemics,” Hendrycks wrote in May. “Alternatively, malicious actors could intentionally release rogue AI that actively attempt to harm humanity. If such an AI was intelligent or capable enough, it may pose significant risk to society as a whole.” Hendrycks will be advising the xAI.

The company reflects Musk’s long-voiced concerns about a future in which AI systems could present an existential risk to humanity.