The emergence and establishment of AI in our day-to-day life occurred dangerously fast. Can you believe it’s not even been two years since OpenAI launched Chat GPT? In such a short period, the AI chatbot became so famous that it is inseparable from our lives.

The funny thing is, it is even hard to imagine us solely dependent on search engines anymore. Though it is the leading company, OpenAI is not the sole soldier in the field now. Many chatbots rose to the level to give OpenAI an intense competition.

Elon Musk, founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX, has been very vocal about the threats and risks AI might impose on people. He has been concerned about data safety, and on multiple occasions, he mentioned how dangerous AI can be if it is not developed in alignment with human values. He was one of the co-founders of OpenAI but later parted ways.

Now that he launched his own AI company, xAI, in July of last year, everyone has this question in mind: Will xAI beat OpenAI?

We all know about Elon Musk’s success record in revolutionizing industries. Tesla’s advancement in electric vehicles and SpaceX’s breakthroughs in space exploration prove that. This man challenges and redefines the status quo. His xAI might add a new trajectory to the development of Artificial Intelligence, given that xAI surpasses OpenAI in terms of advancement and addresses the ethical implications.

First of all, how did OpenAI establish itself as the leader of all AI until now? The reason for this is its extensive and robust framework, along with its collaboration with tech giants like Microsoft. On one hand, it exceeded people’s expectations. On the other hand, they played corporate politics right. Let’s dig a bit deeper into the topic.

You will see that OpenAI’s GPT-4 model has taken the whole standard of AI to another level of language processing and generative tasks. For xAI to surpass that, it has to bring some groundbreaking innovation to the table. xAI will seize the throne if it can integrate fields like neural networks, quantum computing, or robotics.

Since Elon Musk was aware of the potential threats AI may pose if they are developed unsupervised, his AI company must emphasize creating safe and ethical AI systems. The security system should be such that it differentiates xAI from the other AI companies.

As mentioned before, OpenAI collaborated with Microsoft, so it has substantial financial backing. The collaboration and an extremely expert team leading OpenAI secured a position much higher in the AI hierarchy.

On the contrary, xAI is quite new. Though Musk is famous for making his vision a reality, his successes were in a different field. Potential collaborations with Musk’s other companies could create synergies, offering xAI a unique edge.

During this short reign, OpenAI has already established a range of practical applications for its technologies, from chatbots to automated content creation. Not only does xAI have some catching up to do, but xAI also has to emerge as the superior technology provider. Musk’s focus on practical innovation might allow it to explore applications with significant real-world impact.

At this point, we will take our liberty to explore the ‘feud’ between OpenAI and Musk. In 2015, Elon Musk co-founded OpendAI with several other prominent engineers. In 2018, Musk left OpenAI after heated disputes over the direction of its advancement. Not only that but after the incident, Musk publicly criticized OpenAI for transforming the non-profit model into a for-profit model.

In 2024 Musk sued Sam Altman (CEO), and Greg Brockman (President) of OpenAI. He accused them of deviating from OpenAI’s original mission of being a non-profit organization focused on benefiting humanity. OpenAI countered his claims by showing emails that proved Musk had previously supported the for-profit model. 

Musk expressed his willingness to outdo OpenAI and make a “maximum truth-seeking AI that understands the nature of the universe.” Some may call Musk’s ambition to petty and lofty, but it is clear that the dispute revolves around the differing vision for AI development.

The market is already saturated with different AI companies, and OpenAI is capturing most of the attention. This has created barriers to xAI’s market penetration.

AI is a complex field of research and development, so breakthroughs are neither guaranteed nor easily achievable. But AI is an evolving field that leaves room for innovation.

One thing is clear: Elon Musk’s xAI is gearing up for a showdown with OpenAI. Very soon, we will be encountering the head-to-head combat between OpenAI and xAI.

safrinakabir@iut-dhaka.edu