Elon Musk Wants A 'Third Horse' In AI Race; Hints At X.AI-Twitter-Tesla Project

Twitter owner Elon Musk has hinted at a potential artificial intelligence project spearheaded by three of his companies – X.AI, Twitter and Tesla – as the race for artificial intelligence dominance heats up.

"I don't want to jump the gun here on announcements, but OpenAI has a relationship with Microsoft that seems to work very well ... so it's possible that X.AI and Twitter and Tesla would have something similar," the SpaceX founder said during a Wall Street Journal event Tuesday.

Musk founded X.AI, a company dedicated to artificial intelligence, in March. Insider later reported that Musk purchased thousands of graphic processing units (GPUs) to bolster work on a new generative AI product.

"I think there should be a significant third horse in the race here," Musk said Tuesday, adding that he would have "more on that soon," seemingly alluding to the fast-moving race between Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google for AI dominance.

In particular, Musk confidently said "Tesla would win" if "positions were swapped" and his electric vehicle company was given the chance to develop a large language model (LLM). "It's the most advanced real-world AI," he said of Tesla.

Musk previously hinted in a recent interview with CNBC that Tesla's full self-driving software would have a "ChatGPT moment" sometime "not later than next year."

About the ongoing AI race, Musk said there are four major requirements for a company to win the race: funding, talent, computing power and data. He believes a "minimum" of $250 million is necessary for server hardware.

He agreed that AI will "either eliminates or constrains humanity's growth."

"I don't think AI will try to destroy all of humanity, but it might put us under strict control," Musk said, while clarifying that there's "non-zero chance of [AI] going full 'Terminator.'"

On AI's potential benefits to society, the billionaire said he believes the tech "will usher in an age of abundance, assuming that we're in a benign AI scenario."

The tech mogul, in mid-April, revealed he was working on an AI platform, called "TruthGPT," that would challenge Microsoft's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. He said the chatbot would be "a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe," adding his platform "might be the best path to safety, in the sense that an AI that cares about understanding the universe" would be unlikely to "annihilate humans."

While Musk's recent statements suggest he is joining the AI race, he has also been expressing serious concerns about the dangers and risks associated with the fast-evolving technology.

In a recent interview with Fox News, Musk said AI "has the potential of civilization destruction." He also said government regulation of the tech was "not fun" but it had to be done before AI advances further.

"A regulatory agency needs to start with a group that initially seeks insight into AI, then solicits opinion from industry, and then has proposed rule-making," he suggested.

In February, Musk told attendees at the World Government Summit in Dubai that AI was "one of the biggest risks to the future of civilization," reported CNBC. He said the tech has "great, great promise, great capability" but it also comes with "great danger," adding that un-regulated AI was more dangerous than "cars or planes or medicine." While regulatory restrains may slow down AI development in a way, it might pay off somehow, he noted.

Musk isn't the only tech titan who has called for AI regulation.

The leaders of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which Musk helped establish, recommended a regulatory body similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to rein in the technology.

Microsoft and Google are currently leading the AI race, but Meta is also reportedly working quietly on AI research and development.

It remains to be seen how Musk's X.AI company and his plans with the tech would play out in the AI space.