Elon Musk, known for his ventures in space exploration and electric vehicles, is now facing mockery from Meta’s AI chief, Yann LeCun, over his attempts to recruit workers for his AI firm, xAI. The latest spat between the two tech titans was ignited after Musk’s company announced on Sunday that it had raised $6 billion in a Series B funding round.
In a bid to attract top talent, Musk posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, inviting tech workers to join xAI. He emphasized the firm’s mission to understand the universe through a rigorous pursuit of truth, free from concerns about popularity or political correctness.
LeCun, Meta’s leading AI scientist and a long-time critic of Musk, quickly responded with a sarcastic retort. “Join xAI if you can stand a boss who: – claims that what you are working on will be solved next year (no pressure). – claims that what you are working on will kill everyone and must be stopped or paused (yay, vacation for 6 months!). – claims to want a ‘maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth’ but spews crazy-ass conspiracy theories on his own social platform,” LeCun wrote.
LeCun’s jabs referenced Musk’s bold predictions about the imminent arrival of artificial general intelligence and his estimates that AI poses a significant existential threat to humanity. LeCun also criticized Musk’s self-proclaimed status as a free-speech absolutist, pointing out instances where Musk shared unverified claims on X, only to have the platform take down his posts for violating its rules.
The animosity between Musk and LeCun isn’t new. Their public quarrels date back to at least 2017, often revolving around differing views on AI’s future and capabilities. Earlier this year, LeCun dismissed Musk’s assertion that AI would surpass human intelligence within a year.
Currently, xAI’s primary product is a chatbot named Grok, trained using data from X, including Musk’s own posts. As the tech world watches this rivalry unfold, Musk has yet to respond to LeCun’s latest comments or to Business Insider’s request for a statement.