Musk Rejects Report of Tesla Licensing xAI Models for Self-Driving Tech
Elon Musk publicly denies claims that Tesla plans to license AI models from xAI, stating the startup's technology is too large to run in vehicles. He acknowledges that informal engineering discussions between the two companies help accelerate Tesla's Full Self-Driving development.
Elon Musk publicly dismisses a recent Wall Street Journal report claiming Tesla plans to share revenue with xAI in exchange for using its AI models. The original report suggests Tesla intends to integrate xAI's technology into its Full Self-Driving software, a voice assistant, and the Optimus humanoid robot. However, Musk takes to his social media platform X to label these claims as inaccurate.
Musk clarifies that while Tesla benefits from informal engineering discussions with xAI staff to accelerate its unsupervised Full Self-Driving goals, it does not need to license any software. He explains that xAI's models are incredibly massive and contain most of human knowledge in a compressed format. Because of this immense size, these models cannot possibly run on Tesla's vehicle inference computers, nor does the company want them to.
This situation highlights the ongoing scrutiny surrounding Musk's management of his various companies. Shareholders have already sued Musk over the creation of xAI, accusing him of diverting crucial talent and resources from Tesla to a competing enterprise. Despite earlier reports that xAI's massive funding round relies on leveraging data across Musk's business empire, his latest comments firmly draw a line between the two entities regarding direct software licensing.