Elon Musk this week confirmed his intentions to build an AI project that will rival Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Musk’s AI venture is to develop a ‘truth-seeking’ generative AI that promises to be safer than existing generative AI services.
“I am going to start something which I call ‘TruthGPT’, or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe,” said Elon Musk in an interview with Tucker Carlson at Fox News, reports Reuters. “It is simply starting late. But I will try to create a third option.” He also is reported to have said that, “AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production.”
While the entrepreneur did not reveal any other details about his AI project in the interview, Elon Musk shared his apprehension regarding the level of authority that Microsoft has over OpenAI, and the shift in the company’s approach from being a nonprofit venture, reports Bloomberg. Musk also expressed concerns about chatbots being excessively politically correct and declared that his own AI would concentrate on discovering truth, but he refrained on disclosing how the AI seeks to find the truth.
Elon Musk’s new AI venture is expected to be a separate separate entity from his other businesses, and its exact position within Musk’s business empire remains uncertain. Yet, unofficial sources note that the company might use Twitter content for language model training and use Tesla’s vast computing resources.
To build the AI startup, Musk is recruiting AI engineers from leading companies and about half a dozen of rockstar AI specialists are already onboard. Earlier it was reported that about 10,000 Nvidia compute GPUs (Nvidia A100 or H100, it’s not clear yet) were procured for Musk’s AI project needs, which means that hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent on it. Meanwhile, Musk is also reportedly in discussions with SpaceX and Tesla investors regarding the funding of this AI project, according a Financial Times report.