Based on 5 sources.
Due to his lack of trust in Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, Musk created xAI in 2023 and launched competition with OpenAI. Recently, the conflict between the two sides has further escalated.
Reasons for founding xAI
Musk decided to establish xAI because he lacks trust in Altman of OpenAI. Influenced by his childhood dreams and love for science fiction, he is worried that robots may betray humans. He believes he must step forward to protect humans from hostile AI threats and promote humans to become a multi-planetary species.
The development history of xAI
xAI was established in March 2023 in the office on the 10th floor of Musk's social media platform X. It has expanded from one floor of X to a larger office in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto. Musk hired Igor Babuschkin, a former Google DeepMind researcher, to lead xAI and also recruited researchers from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta. In May this year, xAI received $6 billion in financing and the company's valuation reached $24 billion.
Escalation of conflict with OpenAI
The conflict between Musk and Altman has a long history. He withdrew from the OpenAI board in 2018 and has repeatedly criticized OpenAI for lacking transparency and safety commitments. He also sued the company last year. Recently, OpenAI raised $6.6 billion at a valuation of $157 billion and asked investors not to support competitors such as xAI. Musk was extremely angry and bluntly said that "OpenAI is evil" and accused OpenAI of unfair financing behavior on social platforms.
The above article is summarized and generated by AI.