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A recent company filing in Nevada provides evidence that Elon Musk may have real intentions of competing with artificial intelligence pioneers such as OpenAI, which is supported by Microsoft. A business incorporation paperwork that was submitted in March for a new firm that is going to be known as X.ai Corp. names the billionaire owner of Tesla and Twitter as a director for the new company.
What is X.AI?
Elon Musk has lately established a new business venture under the name X.AI. It has not been established for certain what the company specializes in, although it is widely thought to be in the field of artificial intelligence as well as machine learning. Given Musk’s long-standing interest in these fields, this should not come as a surprise to anyone. Musk has been quoted as saying in the past that he believes artificial intelligence to be one of the most important areas of technology and that it possesses the ability to impact the world in significant ways.
Musk’s Interest in AI
For a number of years, Musk has been one of the most outspoken proponents of artificial intelligence. He has issued a warning about the possible risks of AI and has made a demand for regulation in order to ensure that the technology is used for the good of society. Musk’s other companies, like Tesla and SpaceX, have also made significant financial contributions to artificial intelligence research and development.
Web domains that use the extension “.ai” – technically the “top-level” domain for the nation of Anguilla — are common among technology companies that are working on artificial intelligence projects.
On Friday, the Financial Times published an article in which it cited unnamed persons familiar with the billionaire’s efforts to form a team for the firm and to obtain investors. The article suggested that Musk may be taking steps toward starting an artificial intelligence business.
Igor Babuschkin, a scientist at the artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, was reportedly recruited by Musk to head up the endeavor, according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
Jared Birchall, who manages Musk-owned businesses such as the tunneling company The Boring Co. and the neurotechnology start-up Neuralink, is listed as a director of the X.ai Corp. in the Nevada filings.
According to the registries, on March 28 another company with the same name, Xai Inc., was incorporated in the state of Delaware. These records did not contain any information that may identify the company’s executives or directors.
There was no quick response to a message sent to Elon Musk through Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) investor-relations department requesting his reaction on the matter. The message that was sent to Birchall via Neuralink was not answered by him. A message was sent to Babuschkin through social media, but he did not respond to it.
About two weeks before Musk’s name surfaced as a signatory to an open letter from academics and tech leaders and others advocating for a freeze on artificial intelligence development, X.ai was registered in the state of Nevada on March 9th. Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, as well as Andrew Yang, a businessman, and politician, were among the other signatories to the letter.
This letter was sent at the same time when potential competitors to an artificial intelligence product developed by Musk revealed services that some thought could pose societal hazards. These potential competitors included OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet’s Bard.
“[R]ecent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict, or reliably control,” the authors of the letter stated. “[R]ecent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds.”
In 2015, Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI together with the person who is now serving as the business’s chief executive. Musk departed the company in 2018.
On Saturday, attempts to view the X.ai website resulted in a browser error, which indicates that the site does not currently host any content. X.ai is currently unavailable.
According to archived versions of its website, the domain formerly served as the headquarters of an appointment-scheduling service known as “x.ai,” which was powered by artificial intelligence (AI). In 2021, the company Bizzabo, which specializes in event management and is based in New York, purchased that company.
Eran Ben-Shushan, the chief executive officer of Bizzabo, was quoted in Barron’s as saying that the features of the x.ai scheduling business had been merged into his service and that a decision had been made to sell the domain name and trademark of the x.ai scheduling business. There was a follow-up message sent to him asking about the identity of the buyer and the timing of the sale, but he did not answer it.
Musk has used the name “X” for more than one of his businesses. The name “X.com” was given to the online bank that Musk launched in 1999 and later sold to the company that would become PayPal. More recently, Musk established a company called X Corp., which has now acquired Twitter. Musk has also suggested that Twitter may serve as the basis for a multifunctional app that would be referred to as “X.”
“X” is also the first name of Musk’s son with the musician Claire Elise Boucher, better known as Grimes. “X” was given to Musk by Boucher. On Twitter, Boucher provided an explanation, saying that it refers to “the unknown variable.”
The “elven spelling” of AI, which stands for artificial intelligence, was the inspiration for part of the middle name “AE A-12” that will be given to the infant, according to Boucher.
The launch of Elon Musk’s new business, X.AI, has given rise to a great deal of conjecture regarding the development of artificial intelligence. It is evident that Musk is continuing to invest a significant amount of money in the technology, despite the fact that the precise emphasis of the company has not been disclosed. It will be essential for businesses such as X.AI to emphasize ethical issues and make certain that AI is used for the good of society as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and become more ingrained in our day-to-day lives.
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