Elon Musk introduced Friday that he bought social media website X in a $33 billion all-stock deal to his personal AI startup firm, xAI
The tech billionaire shared the information in a statement posted on X, writing, “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. At this time, we formally take the step to mix the info, fashions, compute, distribution and expertise.”
“This mixture will unlock immense potential by mixing xAI’s superior AI functionality and experience with X’s huge attain,” Musk, 53, wrote in his announcement.
“The mixed firm will ship smarter, extra significant experiences to billions of individuals whereas staying true to our core mission of searching for reality and advancing data,” he added.
Musk mentioned that the merger of X to xAI will “permit us to construct a platform that doesn’t simply replicate the world however actively accelerates human progress.”
Each X and xAI are privately held, which suggests they don’t seem to be required to reveal their funds to the general public.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO mentioned the deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion.
It’s not clear if the sale will change something for X customers — xAI already makes use of information from X person posts to coach its synthetic intelligence fashions and paying X customers have entry to its AI chatbot, Grok.
Musk bought X, then called Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022, gutted its workers and adjusted its insurance policies on hate speech, misinformation and person verification and renamed it X.
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“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital city sq. the place issues important to the way forward for humanity are debated,” Musk mentioned in a press launch on the time.
A 12 months later, Musk launched xAI, which he says “has quickly change into one of many main AI labs on the planet, constructing fashions and information facilities at unprecedented pace and scale.”
In March 2023, Musk based the unreal intelligence firm, xAI, to compete with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.
The startup centred within the San Francisco Bay Space employed a bunch of high AI researchers who previously labored at OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Tesla.
Musk was a co-founder and early funder of OpenAI who parted methods with the San Francisco-based analysis lab a number of years in the past. He’s grown more and more important of OpenAI because it’s gained world prominence and business success with final 12 months’s launch of ChatGPT and solidified its monetary ties to Microsoft.
In April 2023, Musk told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that OpenAI’s well-liked chatbot had a liberal bias and that he deliberate an alternate that may be a “most truth-seeking AI that tries to know the character of the universe.”
He mentioned he deliberate to create an alternative choice to the favored AI chatbot ChatGPT that he referred to as “TruthGPT.”
The thought, Musk mentioned, is that an AI that desires to know humanity is much less more likely to destroy it. He additionally mentioned that he was frightened that ChatGPT “is being skilled to be politically appropriate.”
Musk additionally advocated for the regulation of synthetic intelligence, saying he’s a “large fan.” He referred to as AI “extra harmful” than vehicles or rockets and mentioned it has the potential to destroy humanity.
Extra just lately, Musk mentioned he would abandon his $97.4-billion supply to purchase the nonprofit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker dropped its plan to transform right into a for-profit firm.
“If OpenAI, Inc.’s Board is ready to protect the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the ‘on the market’ log out its belongings by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid,” legal professionals for the billionaire mentioned in a submitting to a California courtroom on February 10.
“In any other case, the charity have to be compensated by what an arms-length purchaser pays for its belongings.”
Musk and a bunch of buyers made their supply earlier in February, within the newest twist to a dispute with the unreal intelligence firm that he helped discovered a decade in the past.
OpenAI is managed by a nonprofit board sure to its unique mission of safely constructing better-than-human AI for public profit. Now a fast-growing enterprise, it unveiled plans final 12 months to formally change its company construction.
Musk and his personal AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of funding corporations need to purchase the nonprofit’s controlling stake within the for-profit OpenAI subsidiary.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shortly rejected the unsolicited bid in a post on social media, writing, “no thanks however we’ll purchase twitter for $9.74 billion if you would like.”
He additionally addressed the bid in February at the AI Action Summit in Paris, saying, “OpenAI just isn’t on the market. The OpenAI mission just isn’t on the market.”
“Elon tries all kinds of issues for a very long time. That is this week’s episode. I believe he’s in all probability simply attempting to gradual us down,” Altman said, referring to Musk.
“He clearly is a competitor. He’s working laborious and he’s raised some huge cash for xAI they usually’re attempting to compete… I want he would simply compete by constructing a greater product however I believe there’s been a number of techniques.”
—With recordsdata from The Related Press
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