Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, two prominent billionaires, continue to cross paths, both in the realm of social media and now within artificial intelligence (AI). As they strive to catch up with industry leaders Microsoft and Google, their rivalry in the AI space is set to intensify.
Musk has recently made significant progress by officially announcing his venture, xAI, along with his existing ownership of Tesla (TSLA), SpaceX, and Twitter. Although details are scarce at the moment, Musk has previously expressed his desire to create an alternative to the AI platforms offered by Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google.
On the other hand, Zuckerberg’s company, Meta Platforms (META), has already discussed the integration of chatbots on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Yet, their approach to AI differs as Meta offers its own language model as open-source software to academics and researchers.
Now, it seems that Meta is prepared to make a more significant impact in the AI market. According to the Financial Times, Meta is about to release a commercial version of its AI model. This model would allow businesses to develop their own software, putting Meta in direct competition with Microsoft and Google. However, the report also mentioned that, unlike its competitors, Meta currently does not plan to charge companies for using its model.
Although xAI and Meta will undoubtedly compete, the exact nature of their rivalry remains unclear. The xAI website states that its purpose is to “understand the true nature of the universe.” However, it also indicates that xAI will collaborate with Twitter, Tesla, and other companies. This raises the possibility of xAI being trained on Musk’s Twitter data, while Meta could utilize data from its microblogging app “Threads.” Moreover, this clash between Twitter and Threads adds an intriguing element—a more active social media network could yield more valuable proprietary data for training AI models.
Overall, the competition between Musk and Zuckerberg in the AI market promises to be fierce. As they vie to catch up with Microsoft and Google, it will be fascinating to witness how their ventures, xAI and Meta, respectively, evolve in the rapidly advancing field of artificial intelligence.