Elon Musk launches a new AI startup 'xAI'

Elon Musk strikes again.

On Wednesday, the billionaire launched an AI startup he’s calling xAI aimed at understanding “the true nature of the universe”.

What we know about xAI so far

xAI will likely compete with OpenAI – the company behind ChatGPT. It will also rival other players that have already launched a chatbot, including Anthropic and Google.  

On the team, the new artificial intelligence company has notable names that have formerly worked at Google Research, Twitter, DeepMind, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and even OpenAI.

Den Hendrycks – an Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Center for AI Safety has been revealed as one of the advisors. Musk will share further details on xAI in a live chat on Twitter Spaces this Friday.

Earlier this year, the billionaire had disclosed plans of introducing a new chatbot called “TruthGPT”.

Could it be another ‘distraction’ for Musk?

Shares of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) are up 2.0% on Wednesday.

The news of xAI is significant for the electric vehicles company considering its shareholders had previously seen Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter as a “distraction”.

Note that “TSLA” has gained a whopping 65% since Elon Musk named Linda Yaccarino the new Chief Executive of Twitter. How they’ll respond to his plans of leading yet another company will unravel in the coming days.

Remember that the new AI startup is separate from X Corp – a name Musk previously revealed for Twitter, as per the xAI website. The billionaire has called for the need to regulate the AI space on numerous occasions this year.