Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of Elon Musk’s xAI startup, introduced his departure from the company on Wednesday in a post on X. Babuschkin led engineering groups at xAI and helped construct the startup into one of Silicon Valley’s main AI mannequin builders only a few years after it was based.
“Right now was my final day at xAI, the company that I helped begin with Elon Musk in 2023,” Babuschkin wrote in the submit. “I nonetheless keep in mind the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future would possibly maintain. We each felt {that a} new AI company with a distinct type of mission was wanted.”
Babuschkin is leaving xAI to launch his personal enterprise capital agency, Babuschkin Ventures, which he says will assist AI security analysis and again startups that “advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe.”
The xAI co-founder says he was impressed to start out the agency after a dinner with Max Tegmark, the founder of the Future of Life Institute, by which they mentioned how AI techniques might be constructed safely to encourage the flourishing of future generations. In his submit, Babuschkin says his mother and father immigrated to the U.S. from Russia in pursuit of a greater life for his or her youngsters.
Babuschkin’s departure comes after a tumultuous few months for xAI, by which the company grew to become engrossed in a number of scandals associated to its AI chatbot Grok. As an illustration, Grok was discovered to quote Musk’s private opinions when attempting to reply controversial questions. In one other case, xAI’s chatbot went on antisemitic rants and known as itself “Mechahitler.” Most not too long ago, xAI unveiled a brand new characteristic in Grok that allowed customers to make AI-generated movies resembling nude public figures, similar to Taylor Swift.
These scandals have at instances overshadowed the efficiency of xAI’s fashions, that are state-of-the-art on a number of benchmarks in comparison with AI fashions from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic.
Previous to co-founding xAI, Babuschkin was half of a analysis workforce at Google DeepMind that pioneered AlphaStar in 2019, a breakthrough AI system that might defeat top-ranked gamers at the online game StarCraft. Babuschkin additionally labored as a researcher at OpenAI in the years earlier than it launched ChatGPT.
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In his submit, Babuschkin particulars some of the challenges he and Musk confronted in build up xAI. He notes that trade veterans known as xAI’s aim of constructing its Memphis, Tennessee supercomputer in simply three months “not possible.”
xAI was capable of construct its AI supercomputer in document time, nevertheless, environmentalists warn that the momentary fuel generators powering the cluster are pumping out emissions into neighboring communities and exacerbating their longstanding well being points.
Nonetheless, Babuschkin says he’s already wanting again fondly on his time at xAI, and “appears like a proud guardian, driving away after sending their child away to varsity.”
“I discovered 2 priceless classes from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical issues, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency,” stated Babuschkin.
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