Elon Musk is set to roll out the first model of his AI-powered system, xAI, on Saturday, one day after he proclaimed the tech is the biggest risk to humanity.
The billionaire said Friday that he is opening up early access to a select group, but details of who has not been shared.
‘In some important respects, it (xAI’s new model) is the best that currently exists,’ the Tesla CEO said on Friday.
Musk, who has been critical of Big Tech’s AI efforts and censorship, said earlier this year that he would launch a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe to rival Google‘s Bard and Microsoft‘s Bing AI.
Elon Musk is set to roll out the first model of his AI-powered system, xAI, on Saturday, which he claims could help avoid humanity’s destruction at the hands of the tech
Musk revealed his startup on July 12, 2023 by launching a dedicated X account for the AI company and spares website.
The official website only shows an ambitious vision of xAI – that it was developed ‘to understand the true nature of the universe.’
Many of the founding members are skilled with large language models.
The xAI team includes Igor Babuschkin, a DeepMind researcher, Zihang Dai, a research scientist at Google Brain and Toby Pohlen, also from DeepMind.
‘Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality,’ Musk posted on what was Twitter last year.
He then shared another post highlighting how the date of xAI’s release is to honor Douglas Adams’ ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.’
When adding up the month, day and year, you get 42.
The number is the answer a supercomputer gives to ‘the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.’
Musk has been quick to criticize AI over the years, with his most notable attack on the tech in March when he and more than 1,000 other industry leaders called for a pause on the ‘dangerous race’ to develop AI, which they fear poses a ‘profound risk to society and humanity’ and could have ‘catastrophic’ effects
Musk wrote: ‘And what are the most fundamental unknown questions? Once you know the right question to ask, the answer is often the easy part, as my hero, Douglas Adams, would say.’
The Tesla CEO registered a firm named x.AI Corp in March, incorporated in Nevada, according to a state filing.
The firm lists Musk as the sole director and Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk’s family office, as a secretary.
And the company’s official Twitter account went live in May – but somehow managed to stay under the radar.
Many of the founding members are skilled with large language models.
Musk has been quick to criticize AI over the years, with his most notable attack on the tech in March when he and more than 1,000 other industry leaders called for a pause on the ‘dangerous race’ to develop AI, which they fear poses a ‘profound risk to society and humanity’ and could have ‘catastrophic’ effects.
The X CEO recently attended the UK’s AI summit this week and said the Bletchley Park event was ‘timely’ because AI poses an ‘existential risk’ to humans, who face being outsmarted by machines for the first time.
The event arranged by Rishi Sunak will host discussions with world leaders, tech firms and scientists on the risks of new technology.
In conversation with the Prime Minister, the tech billionaire compared AI to a ‘magic genie’ that would bring a time when ‘no job is needed.’
Musk said people could still work ‘for personal satisfaction’ if they wanted, and one of the future challenges would be finding ‘meaning in life.’
