Elon Musk in talks with ex-DeepMind AI researcher; building team to develop ChatGPT rival

Elon Musk has recently approached AI researchers about establishing a new lab to create an alternative for OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to people with firsthand knowledge of the project, as reported by the Information on Monday.

Igor Babuschkin, a researcher who recently left Alphabet's DeepMind AI division, has been recruited by Tesla and Twitter CEO Musk, according to the report.

The report comes after ChatGPT, an OpenAI text-based chatbot that can create prose, poetry, or even computer code when instructed, attracted a lot of interest in Silicon Valley, Reuters reported.

In 2015, Musk and Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit startup. Musk left the board of directors in 2018, but he still offered his opinion on the chatbot, calling it "scary good."

According to the report, which quoted Babuschkin in an interview, Musk and Babuschkin have talked about putting together a team to conduct AI research, but the project is still in its early stages and has no clear plan to create any specific products.

According to the report, Babuschkin noted that he has not formally signed the Musk initiative.

Babuschkin and Musk could not be contacted right away for comment.

Since its debut in November 2022, ChatGPT has experienced explosive growth in fame, forcing tech giants to enter the AI race. Many businesses are creating their own ChatGPT-inspired AI chatbots.

China's Baidu is revamping its search engine and developing Ernie Bot to compete with ChatGPT. This week, the CEO of Baidu announced that the company would develop an "innovative" version of its well-known search engine using Ernie Bot, an app similar to ChatGPT.

The creation of a Chinese competitor to the OpenAI-backed AI platform is thought to be spearheaded by Baidu, which has made significant investments in AI in recent years.