Elon Musk is reportedly planning to compete with OpenAI in the AI industry with his newly launched company – X.AI Corporation. Established in Nevada, USA, Musk has been surprisingly quiet about this new venture. For someone who tweets almost every little update from his life, this whole business has been kept under wraps for some reason.
The news hasn’t been given out by Musk himself. But after some business documents surfaced recently, it was found that Musk’s name was mentioned under the owners. Further investigation from the state’s business filing department revealed that the company was founded on 9th March.
Since Musk himself hasn’t confirmed or denied any of this, it’s hard to understand the motive behind this merger.
This means they’ve already been in business for over a month and certainly have had at least months of planning before that. They might already be on their way to launching their first competing product against OpenAI.
Reports also suggest that Musk has merged company X with Twitter as a shell company while secretly working on its move to rival OpenAI.
The new AI company is moving in full swing as Musk has heavily invested in hiring new engineers and heavy processors for what he calls a new “AI Project for Twitter”. One of the engineers hired to work on the project is Igor Babuschkin., best known for his former role DeepMind.
Musk is also reaching out to his contacts and network of investors to look for parties interested in funding his new project.
Considering the chaotic way he’s handling Twitter, it’s hard to say how much success he will have with this company. After all, OpenAI isn’t his only competitor. Companies like Google & Microsoft have dedicated decades to researching and developing AI.
The Feud Between Elon Musk & OpenAI
It’s no secret that Elon Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI when it was founded in 2015. But only after three years of service, in 2018, Musk stepped down from the board, citing a conflict of opinion and vision.
OpenAI started as a non-profit R&D company, and Musk wanted it to remain that way. But the majority wanted the company to shift its focus to making a profit.
Musk didn’t agree with OpenAI’s future goals, such as building ethical guardrail AI.
Another interesting fact about his new company is that right after founding it; he was involved in an open letter that called for putting a pause on all kinds of AI work and development. In his argument, he states that such rapid development of AI could be a threat to humanity.
However, despite his supposed stance against AI and disinterest in monetizing AI technologies, here he is, with his new company preparing to rival OpenAI.
It’s hard to tell what caused this sudden change of heart. He might have recognized the potential in the AI industry, or he could be doing it solely to support his other ventures like Tesla and Twitter. Unless he makes a public announcement about his new company, we can neither confirm nor deny any of these possible motives.
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Clora Fleishman