Elon Musk Acquires AI.com, Formerly Owned by OpenAI's ChatGPT Creator
Domain AI.com has reportedly been taken over by Twitter owner Elon Musk. Previously, it was known to belong to OpenAI and directed users to the ChatGPT web interface.
As of Saturday, August 5, 2023, when users type AI.com in their browser, they will be redirected to X.ai, a site owned by Elon Musk's new artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI.
According to Way Back Machine, as quoted from Gizmodo, OpenAI had control of this site at least until July 29.
During that time, the website was not operational but still displayed the company's logo while redirecting users to the ChatGPT homepage.
Mashable reported that OpenAI purchased AI.com in February 2023. It is likely that the domain was acquired for millions of dollars, given the rarity of two-character URLs.
On the other hand, xAI was formed by Elon Musk with the goal of "understanding reality." According to its official website, xAI aims to "comprehend the true nature of the universe."
Although both have similar names and are creations of Elon Musk, xAI is a separate company from X Corp or Twitter and Tesla.
"Although we are a separate company from X Corp, we will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to advance our mission," stated the AI company.
Elon Musk Establishes xAI AI Company
As per the information on its official website on Thursday, July 13, 2023, the xAI team is directly led by Elon Musk.
The xAI team also includes individuals who have previously worked at DeepMind, OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT), Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and the University of Toronto.
Before founding xAI, Elon Musk was involved in the establishment of OpenAI in 2015. However, he withdrew from the ChatGPT creator in 2018 to avoid conflicts of interest with Tesla.
Despite this, as AI gained popularity recently, Elon Musk openly criticized OpenAI and ChatGPT. He also mentioned working on something called "TruthGPT."
Elon Musk Also Takes Over Twitter Account Handle @X
A California man who owned the Twitter handle @X had to relinquish the name after years of using it, as it had to be handed over to Elon Musk.
Photographer Gene X Hwang, who held the @X handle since 2007, as reported by NBC News and Insider, had to give it up after receiving an email from Twitter stating they would take it.
According to People, Hwang claimed that the company did not offer any compensation for suddenly taking over the handle and did not apologize either.
"Money or compensation doesn't seem to be a big deal for them," Hwang said to Insider. "I would definitely accept something for it, but I'm also not trying to extort money or anything."
Twitter offered to provide him with some merchandise and an "exclusive visit to the X headquarters to meet the team."
Hwang, now using the handle @x12345678998765, said he "might not take up the offer to meet" but plans to continue using the platform for now. He initially hoped the branding would lead to "something cool."
"It's like buying a lottery ticket in a way," Hwang said. "You buy it, and there's hope that you might win something, but you also know that it might not happen."