Elon Musk To Launch AI Gaming Studio to Counter Big Corporations. Here’s What We Know

Tech mogul Elon Musk has revealed that his artificial intelligence (AI) startup, xAI, will launch a new AI-powered gaming studio to counter the ‘massive corporations’ pushing ideologically charged video games. Mr Musk was responding to a post by Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus where the latter expressed dissatisfaction at the current state of gaming. The billionaire said his gaming studio will “make games great again,” referencing the MAGA movement, of which Mr Musk was an essential part during the US presidential election.

“I don’t understand how game developers and game journalism got so ideologically captured. Gamers have always been trolls, anti-greedy corporations, anti-bs. Gamers have always rejected dumb manipulative bs, and can tell when someone is an outsider poser. Why lean into the bs?” wrote Mr Markus on X (formerly Twitter).

Replying to the post, Mr Musk said: “Too many game studios that are owned by massive corporations. xAI is going to start an AI game studio to make games great again!”

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1861801046949191686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Earlier, the Tesla CEO also criticised the inclusion of a pronoun selection feature in an upcoming Xbox game called Avowed. “Having pronouns in a fantasy video game is utterly unacceptable,” he wrote on X followed by an angry emoji.

Calling AI gaming the “future” of the industry, Mr Musk also reacted to a post complaining about Mcirosoft’s gaming division for discriminating against Whites during the hiring process.

“Microsoft’s gaming division is excluding whites from being hired to work on their video games. All of their new hires are unqualified queer and black people because the company’s executives have an explicit mandate against “crusty old white dudes,” read the post, to which Mr Musk responded by tagging Microsoft CEO Nadella: “Um, @satyanadella, this is illegal.”

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1861670383210111148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Also read | Elon Musk Hints X Is Making It Harder For People To Read News

What is xAI?

Mr Musk launched xAI in July 2023 as an alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In March, xAI said it would open-source its ChatGPT challenger “Grok”, giving the public free access to experiment with the code behind the technology.

xAI managed to raise $6 billion in series B funding in May, reaching a post-money valuation of $24 billion, backed by investors that included Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. A new $5 billion fundraising round is expected soon which could double xAI’s valuation to $50 billion in just six months.