
Elon Musk’s quest to unlock the mysteries of the universe
Elon Musk announced on Twitter the founding of xAI, a new artificial intelligence company.
Announcement of the establishment of @xAI to understand reality
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2023
xAI’s mission, according to its website, is “to understand the true nature of the universe.”
The company could further develop Musk’s vision of a truthful ChatGPT alternative.
What we need is TruthGPT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2023
Or maybe its AI product is one that even the AI community doesn’t understand.
Even the AI community doesn’t get it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2023
What is xAI?
The website states that xAI is an independent company of X Corp, but plans to work with X (Twitter), Tesla and other companies to fulfill its mission.
The Tesla AI/Software team is truly exceptional and I never give false credit
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2023
The team includes AI experts from companies such as DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research and Microsoft Research who have contributed to groundbreaking optimization methods, normalization techniques, controversial example discovery, innovative analytics and groundbreaking AI systems such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4.

Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center for AI Safety, is a consultant.
Trending tweets about xAI
The xAI team and Musk’s top Twitter supporters shared their excitement at the announcement on Twitter.
Co-founder Greg Yang invited mathematicians and theorists passionate about AI in mathematics to get in touch via direct message.
Finally launched https://t.co/qDiFHUDZMv!
The math of deep learning is deep, beautiful, and disproportionately effective. Developing the “theory of everything” for large neural networks will be central to taking AI to the next level. Conversely, this AI will allow anyone…
— Greg Yang (@TheGregYang) July 12, 2023
Yang left Microsoft Research for the “next adventure” in May.
Now I’m looking forward to my next adventure. Stay tuned ????
— Greg Yang (@TheGregYang) May 15, 2023
One of the first tweets from the company’s official Twitter account raised a profound question:
What are the most basic unanswered questions?
– xAI (@xai) July 12, 2023
Musk and over 12.1k other Twitter users replied:
And what are the most basic unknown questions?
Once you know the right question, the answer is often easy, as my hero Douglas Adams would say. pic.twitter.com/Bo6v8E1Ooq
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2023
Yuhuai(Tony) Wu, whose website mentions a “stealth startup” after working with a future xAI colleague at Google Christian Szegedyshared the following shortly after the announcement.
Solve math and understand the universe
— Yuhuai (Tony) Wu (@Yuhu_ai_) July 12, 2023
Jimmy Ba, another xAI partner, has a Twitter profile Disclaimer that “All my posts are generated by GPT.”
The future of Elon Musk’s new AI company
Will xAI develop something more significant as the next ChatGPT alternative? Only time can tell.
xAI has included a link to a recruitment form for engineers and researchers in the Bay Area who wish to join xAI’s “Mission to Understand the Universe.”
Interested applicants should provide their Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Scholar links and details of their most outstanding work.
@xAI will also host a Twitter Spaces chat on Friday, July 14th to allow those interested to meet the team and ask questions about their planned exploration of the universe.
Featured image: kovop/Shutterstock