Elon Musk's xAI looks to gaming and robotics as it develops AI that understands the world

Looking ahead: Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is ramping up its efforts to develop a new generation of AI systems known as "world models" – technologies designed to interpret and construct representations of the physical world. The initiative places xAI alongside major competitors such as Google DeepMind and Meta in the emerging race to build AI that can reason about real-world environments, not just text or images.

People familiar with the company's plans told the Financial Times that xAI recently hired Nvidia researchers Zeeshan Patel and Ethan He, both of whom have experience developing world models and simulation-based AI.

Nvidia, one of the largest suppliers of computing hardware for AI research, has invested heavily in its Omniverse platform, a suite of tools for building and operating industrial-scale simulations. Some of that expertise is now shifting, in part, to Musk's venture.

World models represent one of the most ...