Elon Musk testified Thursday that his AI company xAI partly used OpenAI models to train its Grok chatbot, according to TechCrunch. The admission came during Musk's ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI, where he claims the company abandoned its original nonprofit mission.
Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018. His testimony acknowledged the use of distillation-a method of training AI by querying existing models through their API. This practice, under scrutiny for potential policy violations, is used by both foreign and domestic firms.
Launched in July 2023, xAI entered a competitive market dominated by Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Musk's remarks suggest his company leveraged OpenAI's technology to compete more effectively.