![2RCDR0J Logos of the AI companies openAI and xAI on mobile phones hovering over a table. Copy space. Web banner format.](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/24135947/SEI_164679667.jpg?width=1200)
ELON MUSK, not content with helming recent purchase Twitter alongside SpaceX and his other long-standing firms, has announced an artificial intelligence start-up called xAI. People have speculated that it might be an attempt to challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot that has grown to 100 million monthly users in the blink of an eye. But a veil of mystery hangs over the venture, whose goal is “to understand the true nature of the universe”. Musk isn’t averse to grandiose statements and marketing bluff – a SpaceX mission to Mars is seemingly always just on the horizon – but a …