Elon Musk Confirms 'TruthGPT' AI Project, Will Use Lots of GPUs

Shutterstock image of Elon Musk
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Elon Musk this week confirmed his intentions to build an AI project that will rival Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. Musk's AI venture is to develop a 'truth-seeking' generative AI that promises to be safer than existing generative AI services.

"I am going to start something which I call 'TruthGPT', or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe," said Elon Musk in an interview with Tucker Carlson at Fox News, reports Reuters. "It is simply starting late. But I will try to create a third option." He also is reported to have said that, "AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production."

While the entrepreneur did not reveal any other details about his AI project in the interview, Elon Musk shared his apprehension regarding the level of authority that Microsoft has over OpenAI, and the shift in the company's approach from being a nonprofit venture, reports Bloomberg. Musk also expressed concerns about chatbots being excessively politically correct and declared that his own AI would concentrate on discovering truth, but he refrained on disclosing how the AI seeks to find the truth.

Elon Musk's new AI venture is expected to be a separate separate entity from his other businesses, and its exact position within Musk's business empire remains uncertain. Yet, unofficial sources note that the company might use Twitter content for language model training and use Tesla's vast computing resources.

To build the AI startup, Musk is recruiting AI engineers from leading companies and about half a dozen of rockstar AI specialists are already onboard. Earlier it was reported that about 10,000 Nvidia compute GPUs (Nvidia A100 or H100, it's not clear yet) were procured for Musk's AI project needs, which means that hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent on it. Meanwhile, Musk is also reportedly in discussions with SpaceX and Tesla investors regarding the funding of this AI project, according a Financial Times report.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • Why_Me
    Elon Musk is Bill Gates worst nightmare.
    Reply
  • sepuko
    Elon is his own worst nightmare, he's long climbed way above his level of competence.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    "truth" anything with Musk behind it is a a joke.

    their understanding of truth is what they want to see.
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    The use of the word "truth" disturbs me -- especially given all the drama with Twitter. I assume Elon intends to create AI to replace fact checkers. Good idea on paper because of a machine's ability to be unemotional. However, the biases of developers and managers will inevitably affect the AI. That and I don't think truth is necessarily the same for everyone on every subject.
    Reply
  • maybe they mean like the ministry of truth
    Reply
  • sam buddy
    hotaru251 said:
    "truth" anything with Musk behind it is a a joke.

    their understanding of truth is what they want to see.
    But isn't this true for all of us, more or less? :)
    Of course, you do have a point, they will probably be pushing THEIR truth as THE truth (which, pretty much, has been the norm for milleniums, and the advent of the internet amplified it to "infinity and beyond").
    bigdragon said:
    The use of the word "truth" disturbs me -- especially given all the drama with Twitter. I assume Elon intends to create AI to replace fact checkers. Good idea on paper because of a machine's ability to be unemotional. However, the biases of developers and managers will inevitably affect the AI. That and I don't think truth is necessarily the same for everyone on every subject.
    "FactGPT" would be a somewhat less controversial name, I guess. As in, "all we want are the facts, ma’am", no extra sauce. Not that it would mean anything, really. A name is just a name.
    I'm curious to see it in action, though, if they ever implement it.
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    Why_Me said:
    Elon Musk is Bill Gates worst nightmare.
    What does Bill Gates have to do with this?
    Reply
  • Why_Me
    TJ Hooker said:
    What does Bill Gates have to do with this?
    Let's start here.

    https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/chatgpt-will-command-more-than-30-000-nvidia-gpus-report.3799157/
    https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/microsoft-pours-billions-into-chatgpt-creator-openai.3793859/
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Assuming he's successful, then Elon is 100% going to pull the plug on this thing, when it starts telling him some truths he doesn't like.
    Reply
  • evdjj3j
    Why_Me said:
    Let's start here.

    https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/chatgpt-will-command-more-than-30-000-nvidia-gpus-report.3799157/
    https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/microsoft-pours-billions-into-chatgpt-creator-openai.3793859/
    Gates hasn't worked at Microsoft for almost 10 years.
    Reply