Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that his new venture, the AI startup xAI, will collaborate with the automaker on both the technology and software aspects.
During a live session on Twitter Spaces, Musk revealed that xAI will use Twitter data to train the AI systems and products it aims to develop.
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In October 2022, when Musk led a buyout of Twitter, the company accumulated $13 billion in debt. It has faced challenges in boosting subscription revenue and has been sued for non-payment by former employees and vendors.
Musk’s other companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Co., have been engaged in business transactions for years. Some of these transactions have been disclosed in Tesla’s financial filings with the SEC.
Musk alleged that “Every AI organization on Earth” has illegally used Twitter’s data for training, although it remains unclear which laws would be violated by such data scraping. Twitter recently filed a lawsuit against unknown parties for data scraping in Texas.
Musk claimed that Twitter had to implement rate limits due to excessive scraping of its platform. He apologized for the inconvenience caused by this rate limiting.
Musk acknowledged the widespread use of Twitter data by AI developers, stating that xAI plans to use public tweets for training purposes. However, he emphasized the need for AI systems to go beyond human-created data.
Musk mentioned that Twitter’s data set is suitable for “text training,” as well as “image and video training.” He expressed his hope that xAI could achieve similar success to Alphabet-owned DeepMind’s Alpha Zero.
During the Twitter Spaces event, a Tesla enthusiast asked Musk about xAI’s collaboration with Tesla. Musk responded by mentioning Tesla’s custom silicon and the advanced driver assistance systems in Tesla’s vehicles.
Tesla has long promised a self-driving vehicle, but its vehicles still require human intervention. Musk stated that Tesla’s hardware 4 is significantly more capable than hardware 3, and he expects even more capable hardware in the future.
Musk discussed Dojo, Tesla’s supercomputer for AI machine learning. Tesla utilizes its customers’ vehicle data to improve software and develop new features.
Musk anticipated that the AI language model developed by xAI may generate controversial answers. He emphasized the importance of understanding the physical world and believed that Tesla’s driving data could contribute to this goal.
The author of an upcoming Elon Musk biography inquired about Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot for manufacturing. Musk revealed that the robot is still in the early stages of development.
Tesla previously showcased the design for Optimus at its AI day in September 2022. Further updates are expected to be shared during an upcoming earnings call.
— CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian contributed reporting.
