Elon Musk xAI: how will AI startup compete with ChatGPT and OpenAI - and employees including Igor Babuschkin

Elon Musk has provided more detail on his newly founded artificial intelligence company aimed at competing with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.

The startup, known as xAI, made its official debut on Wednesday (12 July) with a mission "to understand the true nature of the universe”.

While details remain scarce, the company, led by Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX as well as the owner of Twitter, has assembled a team of renowned AI researchers who previously held positions at OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla.

Among the team members are Igor Babuschkin, a former engineer for Google's DeepMind; Tony Wu, who also has experience at Google; Christian Szegedy, a former Google research scientist; and Greg Yang, who previously worked at Microsoft. Here is everything you need to know about it.

What does xAI hope to do?

Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, the ambitious new venture hopes to make significant strides in the field of AI. Despite working closely with X Corp - the parent company of Twitter - and Tesla, the newly established xAI will be independent as it works “to make progress towards our mission”.

Musk, a co-founder and former financial supporter of OpenAI, parted ways with the renowned research lab in 2018. He has become more critical of OpenAI as it garnered worldwide recognition and achieved commercial success through the launch of ChatGPT last year, while also strengthening its financial association with Microsoft.

The establishment of xAI aligns with Musk's longstanding concerns regarding the potential existential threat posed by AI systems to humanity. During his interview with Carlson, Musk said that an AI driven by the pursuit of understanding humanity would be less inclined to cause harm or destruction.

Earlier this year, Musk and other prominent technology leaders advocated for a six-month pause on developing AI systems more advanced than OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4. Nevada business records show that Musk had already commenced efforts to launch his own AI company during that period.

The filing indicates that Musk serves as the sole director of the firm, with Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk's family office, listed as the secretary.

How will xAI differ from OpenAI?

During a Twitter Spaces event held on Wednesday (12 JUly) evening, Musk elaborated on his strategy for developing a "safer" AI. Instead of directly coding morality into the AI, Musk stated that xAI aims to construct a highly inquisitive AI, fostering a "maximally curious" approach to learning and understanding.

"If it tried to understand the true nature of the universe, that's actually the best thing that I can come up with from an AI safety standpoint," Musk said. "I think it is going to be pro-humanity from the standpoint that humanity is just much more interesting than not-humanity."

What projects is xAI working on?

While xAI has made its official public debut, further details about its specific plans or projects remain scarce. However, in April, Musk announced his intention to introduce an AI called "TruthGPT", which would aim to compete with Google's Bard and Microsoft's Bing AI.

During his Fox News conversation with Carlson around the same time, Musk expressed his concerns about what he described as ChatGPT's liberal bias, and outlined his intention to develop an alternative that would embody a “maximum truth-seeking AI."

But we could be about to find out more information on the new company's plans and projects, as xAI's website has announced that it will host a Twitter Spaces event on Friday 14 July.