Elon Musk has refuted claims that his artificial intelligence venture, xAI, has engaged in discussions regarding a share of future Tesla revenues in exchange for providing the electric vehicle manufacturer with access to xAI's technology and resources.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal on
Saturday, Tesla was purportedly set to license xAI's AI models to enhance its
driver-assistance software and full self-driving capabilities, with plans to
share some of the resulting revenue with the startup.
Musk stated late Saturday on his social media platform X
that while Tesla has gained valuable insights from conversations with xAI
engineers that have expedited the development of unsupervised full self-driving
technology, there is no necessity to license any technology from xAI, deeming
the report "not accurate."
The Journal, referencing unnamed sources, indicated that xAI
would also assist in developing additional features for Tesla, such as a voice
assistant for its electric vehicles and software for its humanoid robot,
Optimus.
The potential terms of any revenue-sharing agreement would
be influenced by the extent to which Tesla utilizes xAI's technology compared
to its own, with discussions reportedly including an equal revenue split from
Tesla's full self-driving initiatives.
xAI was unavailable for comment. Musk established xAI last
year to rival Microsoft-backed OpenAI, raising concerns about the possible
diversion of resources from the automaker to the AI firm.
He has mentioned that xAI would be beneficial in enhancing
full self-driving capabilities and in developing a new Tesla data center, with
possibilities for integrating xAI's chatbot, Grok, into Tesla's software.
In July, Musk indicated that he and the Tesla board would
consider a $5 billion investment in xAI.