According to a story in the Financial Times on Friday, citing individuals familiar with Musk’s intentions, Musk, a tech billionaire, plans to build an AI startup to compete with ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
According to the FT article, Twitter owner Musk is assembling a team of AI academics and engineers. It talks with certain SpaceX and Tesla Inc investors about funding its new firm.
Musk’s goal for the company comes just weeks after he and other AI academics and CEOs advocated for a six-month moratorium on creating systems more advanced than OpenAI’s GPT-4 due to the potential hazards they pose to society.
Major corporations like Microsoft and Google are actively pursuing the technology underlying the viral chatbot phenomenon ChatGPT, called Generative AI.
ChatGPT is meeting resistance from authorities pushing for clear guidelines before it can be widely used. In response to privacy concerns, Italy has outlawed ChatGPT, and a European privacy authority has established a task group as a first step towards a unified policy on artificial intelligence.
Thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) manufactured by Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) have reportedly been purchased by Musk. These GPUs power the computation necessary for demanding activities like artificial intelligence (AI) and high-end graphics. The chipmaker’s stock rose on the Friday after the report, although the firm’s representatives had refused to comment.
In a state file made last month, we learn that Musk established a Nevada corporation named X.AI Corp. Musk is listed as the only director. In contrast, Musk’s family office managing director Jared Birchall is listed as the company’s secretary.
A connection between the company and Musk’s rumoured artificial intelligence venture remained unclear. When contacted by Reuters, Musk declined to comment.
OpenAI is a non-profit organisation founded in 2015, and Musk helped create it. In 2018, he resigned from the board of directors of the corporation.