Elon Musk reportedly planning to launch AI rival to ChatGPT maker

Elon Musk is reportedly planning to launch an artificial intelligence company to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, as Silicon Valley battles for dominance in the rapidly developing technology.

The billionaire boss of Tesla and Twitter is in the process of bringing together a team of AI researchers and engineers and is in talks with several investors about the project, according to the Financial Times.

The move, which would mean him joining tech giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon and startups including OpenAI in the fast-changing generative AI space, appears to signal a rapid change of direction. Only a few weeks ago Musk co-signed a letter in which he and more than 1,800 others demanded a six-month pause in AI research. It later emerged that some of the signatories were fake.

His business portfolio includes Twitter, Tesla, rocket maker SpaceX, neurotechnology research company Neuralink and his tunnelling project, The Boring Company.

On Friday, SpaceX was issued with a Starship launch licence, clearing the way for the first flight test of the new rocket, potentially on Monday.

For the new AI project, Musk has reportedly got thousands of high-powered GPU processors and is also said to have recruited engineers from leading AI labs, such as DeepMind.

Soon after, it became a for-profit startup and secured a $1bn investment from Microsoft. It has since attracted growing criticism from Musk over the potential existential threats generative AI may pose.

He has said he is especially concerned about the capability of models such as GPT-4, the latest release by OpenAI, to spread false information and demonstrate political bias.