Elon Musk is gearing up to create a new artificial intelligence (AI) company named X.AI to battle head-on with OpenAI, despite his warnings that AI might lead to the demise of civilization.
Evidence of Newly-Launched Firm
Based on a Wall Street Journal report on Friday, April 14, Musk privately formed X.AI in the state of Nevada last month and approved the sale of 100 million shares.
State documents reveal that Musk is the only director. Jared Birchall, a trusted associate and the director of Musk's family office, is listed as the company's secretary.
The Financial Times also ran a report earlier in the day about Musk having been actively hiring researchers and engineers in the field of AI, including top talent from industry leaders like Alphabet-owned DeepMind.
Reportedly, Musk has approached numerous SpaceX and Tesla investors about funding his new AI business. "A bunch of people is investing in it ... it's real and they are excited about it," one insider familiar with the talks told the Financial Times.
Business Insider claimed last week that the Tesla billionaire had bought around 10,000 GPUs for his new AI project. GPUs are often used by tech organizations to address the computing demands of cutting-edge AI systems.
Putting Money Into AI Despite Dire Forecasts
Last year, Musk stated his intention to develop a universal app on Twitter, and the new company's name alludes to this goal.
He then recently rebranded Twitter as X Corp and incorporated the company in Nevada rather than its previous home state of Delaware. The parent firm of X Corp is called X Holdings Corp.
VentureBeat said Musk's new company debuts after he warned about the perils of AI and called for more government supervision.
Musk told Tucker Carlson in his recent two-part interview that AI has the potential to destroy civilization.
"AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production, in the sense that it is, it has the potential - however small one may regard that probability, but it is non-trivial - it has the potential of civilization destruction."
Amidst a boom of AI products for broad consumer usage, Musk has lately issued repeated warnings about the dangers of AI. Musk even recently signed an open letter with other industry titans asking for a six-month halt in the "out of control" race to build AI.
Elon Musk and OpenAI
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 together with other notable tech entrepreneurs and academics with the aim of developing AI that can only be used for good and is immune to corporate or political manipulation.
According to VentureBeat, a new investigation by Semafor claims that Musk attempted to take over OpenAI in 2018 but was unsuccessful.
A conflict of interest with his employment at Tesla, which also develops AI tech for its self-driving vehicles, led to his resignation from OpenAI's board. Musk has also been critical of OpenAI's efforts to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI). This refers to the stage at which computers can do everything mentally that humans can.
