In a recent development, Elon Musk has publicly dismissed claims that Tesla is in discussions to license AI models from his other venture, xAI. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Tesla might share revenue with xAI in exchange for using its AI models to enhance Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and develop new features, such as a voice assistant for Tesla vehicles and software for its humanoid robot, Optimus.
However, Musk took to his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to set the record straight. He asserted that he hadn’t read the WSJ article but found a summary of the report to be “not accurate.”
“Tesla has learned a lot from discussions with engineers at xAI that have helped accelerate achieving unsupervised FSD, but there is no need to license anything from xAI,” Musk stated. He further elaborated that the xAI models are incredibly vast, encompassing a compressed version of most human knowledge. These models, according to Musk, are far too large to operate on Tesla’s vehicle inference computers and wouldn’t be suitable for such an application even if they could.
Musk’s xAI, which he founded as a competitor to OpenAI—a company he co-founded but later parted ways with—has been making waves in the AI industry. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that xAI was seeking to raise $6 billion in funding. Part of xAI’s vision, as outlined in its pitch, is to train its AI models using data from Musk’s various enterprises, including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X. The aim would be to utilize these models to drive technological advancements across all these companies.
The recent WSJ report suggested that this collaboration might extend to Tesla’s FSD software, a cornerstone of Tesla’s future autonomous driving ambitions. However, Musk’s comments indicate that while Tesla benefits from the insights shared by xAI engineers, there is no formal agreement or need to license xAI’s models.
The controversy has also brought to light ongoing concerns among Tesla shareholders, some of whom have sued Musk over the establishment of xAI. They argue that Musk’s involvement in xAI diverts critical talent and resources from Tesla, potentially compromising its leadership in the electric vehicle and autonomous driving sectors.
In Musk’s rebuttal, he emphasizes the independent capabilities of Tesla’s FSD development, while acknowledging the value of collaborative discussions with xAI. Despite the legal challenges and shareholder concerns, Musk’s latest comments underline his commitment to keeping Tesla’s AI and autonomous driving technologies separate from xAI’s ambitious endeavors.
