Elon Musk revealed his plans for collaboration between his new artificial intelligence startup, xAI, and Tesla. During a live audio session on Twitter Spaces, Musk stated that xAI would work with Tesla on both the “silicon front” and the “AI software front.” He further mentioned that xAI would utilize Twitter data to train their AI systems and products, which aim to be highly curious. However, the specifics regarding potential charges for using Twitter’s data were not disclosed.
Musk also highlighted the existing collaborations among his various companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Co., which have been previously disclosed in Tesla’s financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Regarding the use of Twitter data by AI organizations, Musk claimed that every AI organization on Earth had used Twitter’s data illegally, although it remained unclear which laws would have been violated. In response, Twitter implemented rate limits on its platform to address excessive scraping, leading Musk to apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Musk expressed his intention to use public tweets, excluding private information, for training AI systems, which aligns with the practices of other developers. He emphasized that AI systems require more than just human-created data and expressed hope that xAI could follow the path of DeepMind’s Alpha Zero, which achieved mastery in chess, shogi, and go after training by playing against itself.
During the Twitter Spaces event, a Tesla enthusiast asked about xAI’s potential collaboration with Tesla, including the use of Nvidia or Tesla-made silicon for data processing. Musk responded that Tesla is building custom silicon, distinguishing it from a traditional GPU. He also discussed Tesla’s hardware advancements, including the recently shipping Hardware 4, which is three-to-five times more capable than Hardware 3, with plans for Hardware 5 in the coming years.
Musk mentioned Dojo, a supercomputer developed by Tesla for AI machine learning and computer vision training, which utilizes video clips and data from customers’ vehicles to improve existing software and develop new features.
Addressing the development of an AI language model by xAI, Musk stated that it would not adhere to political correctness and might provide controversial yet truthful answers. He also expressed the importance of xAI understanding the physical world, in addition to the internet, and believed that Tesla’s driving data would contribute to that aspect.
In response to a question about Optimus, a humanoid robot for manufacturing, Musk stated that it is still in the early stages, and his team is working on implementing an easy on/off mechanism for users.
Tesla executives are expected to provide further updates on Optimus and other developments during an upcoming earnings call.