Elon Musk Launches xAI, A Benefit Corporation for the entire humanity

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized digital interaction today. After the successful launch of Open AI’s AI system Chat GPT, many AI startups and prominent technological companies are sweeping this market. We have competent companies such as Google with its AI model Bard and Microsoft’s Bing AI grace the competitive stage. You might have already used these beta models. Elon Musk does not want to fall short in the AI game. Musk launched the xAI startup on 12th July 2023. Musk’s xAI uses the Grok 1 AI system to answer your queries and offer insightful solutions. So, moving ahead with this piece, I will guide you in understanding the different facets of xAI’s Grok 1 and how it brings something different from other AI models to the table. We will also assess xAI’s current influence on the broader AI market. 

Code Displayed over a woman

What is Elon Musk's xAI?

xAI is one of the new entrants in the world of Artificial intelligence. Its AI system Grok uses and incorporates Large Language Models (LLMs) to provide meaningful insights into your queries and problems. This is the brainchild of Elon Musk in terms of his contribution to the AI domain. Musk was part of Open AI’s board of members which worked on the making of Chat GPT, a prominent AI system that has powered the machine learning revolution. Musk left the board in 2018 for a few reasons, one being a greater influence of Microsoft on the company’s board. He also mentioned being reluctant to follow a for-profit model that Open AI seeks to move towards while his ideas were more in tune with the platform being a public corporation entirely. 

All these instances culminated in him creating the xAI startup which in his words will help us to understand the nature of our universe better. xAI’s first AI system launched publicly Grok 1 is an upgraded model from the previous Grok 0 AI system which had over 33 billion parameters to answer your queries. The Grok 1 AI system is a fairly advanced system that scores 63.2% in Human Eval Coding Tasks, and 73% in MMLU (Massive Multi-Language Understanding). Musk made sure that his project had the top of the cream professionals working for him. This includes professions that worked in the making of Bard, Bing, Claude and Chat GPT from noteworthy companies like Microsoft, Google Anthropic and Open AI. 

How is xAI different from other AI systems?

Elon Musk is a youth sensation and is known to be intellectually well-endowed, his theories on science, and physics always catch attention. When xAI was inaugurated in July, Musk told everyone that xAI intends to understand science better, this was a different goal from other mottos of AI systems which were similar, all of them focused more on the collective good of humanity and development. Musk left Open AI’s board as they soon started a for-profit arm hence affirming where he stands in this profit vs welfare argument in regards to AI’s use. xAI is different from the AI platform Anthropic as the latter wants to focus on the establishment of a “reliable, interpretable, and steerable” AI system. Musk also incorporated his company in Nevada as a benefit corporation focusing on the platform to serve human needs and interests, the overarching intent of his platform being  “maximally curious and truth-seeking”. 

Photo of a future robot

‘xAI’ A new revolution in the market

xAI as a platform with Grok AI system has moved in the right direction in regards to the technology and incorporation of LLM.  Not only does it draw attention towards the intent of the AI system which is largely human and science-centric but it also helps us reflect on some of the ethical questions about this technology. Dan Hendricks leads the Center for AI Safety, a grouping that came around to inform the potential dangers of AI. In the early months of 2023, a public letter signed by top CEOs in the AI industry including Alphabet-backed Deep Mind and Open AI including Musk signed the letter. Greg Yang, co-founder of xAI in a publicly issued statement mentioned how the company was keen on focusing on a ‘theory of everything’ a large neural network that could explain everything there is about the universe. These intentions create a new vacuum for better technologies to evolve.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is the raging technology today. It has revolutionized how we connect with digital technologies in today’s times. Elon Musk’s xAI is an amazing platform that has many plans in the pipeline in regards to AI’s application, he wants to use AI to broaden the horizons of science. With prominent tech companies pooling their money from all quarters and investing in AI shows exponential capabilities of growth. Musk might have made this race more interesting going ahead. How evolved AI is going to be is still a bigger question? Musk, investing in this new technology surely has got the corporate eyeballs rolling to spot potential in the AI market.