Elon Musk launches new company xAI, which proclaims a lofty mission to 'understand the true nature of the universe'

• Elon Musk officially unveiled his new company xAI on Wednesday.
• Its mission is no less than to probe the "true nature of the universe," according to its website.
• Musk was hiring for a large language model-based AI endeavor, Insider previously reported.

Elon Musk has launched yet another company.

Musk publicly introduced a new company called xAI, whose stated aim is to glean "the true nature of the universe." And an apparently all-male, 12-person team including Musk has been detailed to the heady task, according to its website, which doesn't list any female employees.

Information about what the company does is scant on the site, and xAI's first tweet today was perhaps just as cryptic: "What are the most fundamental unanswered questions?" it posed. 

Musk tweeted on Wednesday that the company's mission is to "understand reality." 

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2023

X.AI Corp. was formed earlier and incorporated in Nevada, the WSJ reported back in April. The company's website says it plans "to work closely" with companies including Tesla and Twitter, which was folded into an entity called X Corp. 

Musk's team listed on the xAI's site includes researchers, coders, and AI experts whose resumes include the familiar names — the likes of OpenAI, Microsoft, and Tesla, another company that Musk helms, according to the site. 

The company also listed Dan Hendrycks, a researcher heading up the Center for AI Safety, as an advisor. Hendrycks has published about the potential dangers of AI, including the technology's ability to spread disinformation. 

Emails sent to Musk's Tesla and SpaceX addresses did not receive a response on Wednesday. An email sent to Twitter's communications address received an auto-reply that did not respond to the inquiry. 

An email sent to Hendrycks and the Center for AI Safety's representatives did not immediately receive a response. 

The xAI team also includes two members whose hires Insider's Kali Hays previously reported — Manuel Kroiss and Igor Babuschkin, both from Google's AI research unit DeepMind. 

Babuschkin also had an unrelated run-in with Palo Alto police, who had arrested him in March after responding to a report involving domestic violence, Insider reported. He was released soon after posting a bond, Lieutenant Brian Philip of the Palo Alto Police Department confirmed to Insider at the time. 

Babuschkin did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Wednesday.

With the launch of xAI, Musk now owns or is in charge of half a dozen companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and Twitter.