Elon Musk to merge xAI with X

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence venture, xAI, is set to be seamlessly integrated into the social media platform, X. Additionally, xAI will also be available as a standalone application, according to an announcement made by Musk on Sunday. 

In the same update, the billionaire revealed that xAI has introduced its inaugural AI model, a chatbot named Grok. Grok has been rolled out to all X Premium+ subscribers as of last Friday.

The core mission of Musk's startup is to develop AI tools that aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Grok, with a touch of humour, has been crafted to provide answers to queries. Musk has been critical of major tech companies' AI endeavours, which he believes are marred by censorship. In July, he launched xAI, touting it as a "maximum truth-seeking AI" that aspires to unravel the mysteries of the universe, positioning it as a contender against Google's Bard and Microsoft's Bing AI.

Musk emphasised the substantial advantage of Grok having real-time access to information through the X platform, highlighting the collaborative synergy between the two companies. 

While X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, is owned by Musk, it operates independently of xAI. However, the two entities maintain close ties. xAI also collaborates with Musk's electric vehicle manufacturer, Tesla, as well as other enterprises.

Last week, during the first global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, England, Musk discussed the transformative potential of AI with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Musk opined that AI could become the most disruptive force in history, potentially rendering contemporary employment obsolete by having the ability to handle a wide range of tasks. 

Notably, Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, the organisation responsible for creating ChatGPT and triggering a worldwide surge in generative AI technology. However, he resigned from the board of OpenAI in 2018.

(With Reuters Inputs)