Elon Musk pursues generative AI, just weeks after calling for a pause

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Several weeks ago, Elon Musk signed a letter with others calling for AI labs to pause the training of their AI systems for six months. Now, it turns out that Musk is pursuing his own generative AI start-up if a report from the Financial Times is to be believed. One insider says SpaceX and Tesla investors are already helping Musk fund the work and “are excited about it.”

Ever since last year when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, many tech firms have piled in to create their own generative AI. Not one to shy away from futuristic projects, Musk now appears to be getting in on the game too. He has also secured thousands of NVIDIA GPUs to help power the AI systems, according to those in the know.

To help develop the software, Musk has also been poaching engineers from various companies including Alphabet’s DeepMind. Igor Babuschkin is named as one engineer that has been brought on by Musk from DeepMind but there are about six others who weren’t named.

Elon Musk actually helped to co-found OpenAI but had disagreements with the others at the company. Given his fears about AI, it’ll be interesting to see what safeguards he uses in his product if it launches.