Elon Musk recently held a recruitment event for his new AI company, xAI, in San Francisco. Musk emphasized the company’s speed in developing products and creating AI tools in a fast-paced environment. The event took place at the Pioneer Building in the Mission district, the former headquarters of OpenAI, which Musk has had conflicts with since leaving the company in 2018. He has since sued OpenAI twice, accusing them of straying from their mission to benefit humanity. Musk sees xAI as the antithesis to OpenAI and wants to position his company as the “good guys” in the AI space.
During the event, Musk spoke to a crowd of about 150 people, mostly men, and expressed his distrust of OpenAI, calling it “closed, for-maximum-profit AI.” xAI, which was launched last July, has been known for its Grok AI model, a paid subscription feature on X, a social platform owned by Musk. The company raised a significant amount of funding in a Series B round, totaling $6 billion at a valuation of $24 billion. Musk also mentioned plans to open source their models about nine months after release, and encouraged young people in AI to consider working for xAI.
The event coincided with OpenAI’s annual Dev Day, leading to speculation about the timing. Musk joked about building a model called “BasedGPT” and took a jab at OpenAI by displaying a printed-out photo of their president, Greg Brockman, hanging from the ceiling. Despite this rivalry, there were reportedly about 10 current OpenAI employees in attendance. The company showcased an unreleased image generation model at the event, including an AI-generated image of a man in a strawberry costume.
Attendees described the event as having a party atmosphere with a nerdy twist. The venue was darkly lit like a club, with an open bar, hor d’oeuvres, and a DJ playing music that was being coded in real-time. Security was tight, with attendees passing through metal detectors and bag checks. Despite the high security, attendees were surprised at how close they could get to Musk, the world’s richest person. Musk himself engaged with attendees and answered questions during a wide-ranging Q&A session.
Overall, the event showcased Musk’s vision for xAI as a fast and nimble company in the AI space, in contrast to OpenAI’s more structured and profit-driven approach. The rivalry between the two companies was evident throughout the evening, with Musk positioning xAI as a more benevolent alternative. As xAI continues to grow and develop its AI models, it remains to be seen how the company will fare in competition with the more established players in the industry.
