Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, recently clarified that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, will not be licensing its technology to Tesla. Musk made this announcement through a post on X, contradicting claims made in a Wall Street Journal article published on September 7, which suggested that an agreement was in place between the two companies.
The Wall Street Journal’s Assertions
The Wall Street Journal article cited anonymous sources who alleged that Tesla intended to incorporate AI models created by xAI into its driver assistance technology, known as Full Self-Driving (FSD). Additionally, it claimed that xAI would receive a share of the revenue generated from this partnership.
Furthermore, the article mentioned that xAI would play a role in assisting Tesla in developing various features, including a voice assistant similar to Siri.
According to the piece, Tesla and xAI agreed to split the revenue from FSD, which is priced at USD 99 per month for consumers.
Musk’s Response
In response, Elon Musk stated that while Tesla executives have benefited from the expertise of xAI engineers to enhance their FSD capabilities, there is no requirement for Tesla to license technology from xAI. He emphasized:
“The xAI models are gigantic, containing, in compressed form, most of human knowledge, and couldn’t possibly run on the Tesla vehicle inference computer, nor would we want them to.”
Musk further explained that Tesla’s AI models are incredibly efficient and designed to process real-world video data into driving commands instantaneously. To meet the constraints of onboard computer systems, the models must remain compact.
He elaborated:
“Tesla real-world AI also has a vastly larger context size than an LLM, as the combined video history from all cameras is several gigabytes in size.”
About xAI
Founded in July 2023, xAI aims to make a significant impact on the AI landscape. Despite its recent establishment, Musk is optimistic about its potential. The xAI team has recently activated its Colossus 100,000 H100 training cluster, with expectations for it to double in capacity in the coming months.
Key Points in This Article
- Elon Musk denies licensing technology from xAI to Tesla.
- Wall Street Journal claimed an AI partnership between Tesla and xAI.
- Claims of shared revenue from Tesla’s Full Self-Driving services.
- Musk emphasizes the limitations of xAI models in Tesla’s environment.
- xAI, founded in July 2023, is poised to innovate in the AI sector.
