July 15, 2023
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of Twitter, has revealed plans for his latest venture, the artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI, to collaborate with both companies in order to advance AI technologies.
Musk aims to leverage the "silicon front" and "AI software front" of Tesla to accelerate the development of self-driving capabilities. He also intends to use public tweets from Twitter to train xAI's AI models, with the goal of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) and providing an alternative to established players like Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI.
During a live audio session on Twitter Spaces, Musk criticised other AI companies for developing the technology without considering the risks to humans. He expressed his desire for regulation in the AI field and revealed his efforts to meet with government officials in the United States and China to emphasise the importance of responsible AI development.
Musk acknowledged that xAI would utilise Twitter data for training its AI systems, similar to what other companies have done. He mentioned that xAI aims to build AI systems and products that are "maximally curious" and has an interest in text, image, and video training. Musk highlighted the need for AI systems to understand the physical world, not just the Internet, and believes that Tesla's driving data can contribute to this goal.
In terms of collaboration between xAI and Tesla, Musk said that the specifics would be better answered by Tesla. He mentioned Tesla's custom silicon and highlighted the company's in-vehicle hardware, such as Autopilot and Full Self Driving capability, which relies on advanced driver assistance systems.
Musk's xAI initiative is part of his broader vision to revolutionise AI development and bring about transformative advancements. Through collaborations with Tesla and Twitter, he aims to address the limitations of existing AI models and create AI systems capable of solving problems like humans. However, he also acknowledged that the resulting AI language model might provide controversial answers, as it would not be "politically correct."
The potential partnership between xAI, Tesla, and Twitter signifies a significant step forward in the development of AI technologies and highlights Musk's commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation in this field.