Elon Musk, renowned businessman and founder of companies such as SpaceX and Tesla, recently announced his plans to start up a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, known as “TruthGPT”. Musk’s new venture is seen as a potential competitor to the Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot sensation. While expressing his disapproval of OpenAI, Musk argued that it had moved to a “closed source,” “for-profit” Organization, allied with Microsoft. He also criticized Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, for not taking AI safety seriously.
At an interview with Fox News channel’s Tucker Carlson, Musk declared his intentions to launch the “TruthGPT”, claiming that it could potentially be the safest AI that is “unlikely to annihilate humans”. To take the challenge head-on, Musk registered a company named X.AI Corp, incorporated in the state of Nevada. He is listed as the company’s sole director, with the managing director of Musk’s Family Office, Jared Birchall, as the secretary.
Despite his declaration to challenge Ai giants like OpenAI and Google, Musk is no stranger to Artificial Intelligence. He had, only last month, advocated for a six month pause for designing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4, citing the potential risks to society posed by AI. At the interview, he highlighted the dangers of artificial intelligence, stressing that it “has the potential of civilizational destruction” if not utilized correctly.
In addition to his own initiatives, Musk also revealed that he held a meeting with the former United States President, Barack Obama, to discuss the need for AI regulation. Furthermore, when Musk stepped down from OpenAI’s Board in 2018, he addressed that Tesla was among the competitors for the same personnel. Subsequently, in 2019, he tweeted that besides needing to focus on Tesla and Spacex, he had other disagreements with OpenAI’s team members.
In the face of increasing competition among tech giants, Microsoft Corp poured yet another multi-billion-dollar investment in OpenAI. Intensifying the AI-funding race in Silicon Valley, the decision serves to strengthen the competition with Google. On the other hand, Musk revealed that the social media platform, which he acquired for $44 billion, had been valued at “less than half” of the purchase price. We can expect to wait and see how the market responds to TruthGPT and what it could bring to the table.
