Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI to launch first AI model to select group on November 4

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI will release its first AI model to a limited group tomorrow Saturday, November 4, the billionaire and Tesla CEO said on Friday.

The news comes four months after Musk announced the launch of xAI in July with “the goal of understanding the true nature of the universe.” The launch also follows nearly a year since the widespread interest sparked by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which led to a significant rise in the adoption of generative AI technology by businesses and users globally.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk said:

“Tomorrow, @xAI will release its first AI to a select group. In some important respects, it is the best that currently exists.”

Tomorrow, @xAI will release its first AI to a select group.

In some important respects, it is the best that currently exists.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2023

Musk co-founded OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) in 2015 but stepped down from the company’s board in 2018. Musk also expressed criticism of Big Tech’s AI endeavors and censorship. Then earlier this year, Musk revealed plans to launch a truth-centric AI aiming to comprehend the nature of the universe, aiming to compete with Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing AI.

The xAI team, which started operations in July of this year, includes experts from Google’s DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and other leading AI research firms. They have contributed to significant projects like DeepMind’s AlphaCode and OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 chatbots. Musk seems to position xAI as a competitor to established companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, which have developed prominent chatbots like ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude.

News about the xAI first surfaced in The Financial Times in April. The report also mentioned that Musk had acquired a substantial number of GPU processors from Nvidia to potentially power a large-scale language model. During a taped interview on Fox News Channel in the same month, Musk disclosed his plans for a new AI tool called “TruthGPT.” He expressed concerns that existing AI companies prioritize systems that are overly focused on being “politically correct.”

While Musk-owned X and xAI are distinct entities, they maintain close collaboration. Additionally, xAI engages in collaborative work with Tesla and various other companies.