Latest news with #IgorBabuschkin
Entrepreneur
16 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
xAI Cofounder Says He Learned 2 Major Lessons From Elon Musk
Igor Babuschkin co-founded xAI in 2023 and announced his departure on X on Wednesday. Igor Babuschkin announced this week that he is leaving the company he helped cofound with Elon Musk to start his own company focused on AI safety research. Babuschkin posted the news on X, which is owned by xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company. "Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023," he wrote. "I still remember the day I first met Elon. We talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold." Related: 'My Startup Roots Have Begun Tugging on Me': A Big Tech CEO Just Quit to Be an Entrepreneur Again Igor Babuschkin, co-founder of xAI, during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg | Getty Images Babuschkin wrote that "through blood, sweat, and tears," they "shipped frontier models faster than any company in history," and during the process, he earned two "priceless" lessons from Musk. 1. Be fearless "Be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems," he wrote. Babuschkin noted that Musk personally worked with the team, flying to a data center and staying all night until the issues were fixed. 2. Have a "maniacal" sense of urgency "xAI executes at ludicrous speed," he wrote. "Industry veterans told us that building the Memphis supercluster in 120 days would be impossible. But we believed we could do the impossible." Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023. I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed. Building… — Igor Babuschkin (@ibab) August 13, 2025 Musk replied to his post, offering thanks: "Thanks for helping build xAI! We wouldn't be here without you." Related: Elon Musk's xAI Is Hiring Engineers for Its Anime 'AI Companions' — With Salaries Up to $440,000 a Year
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The cofounder of xAI is leaving the company. He says he's learned 2 main things from Elon Musk.
xAI cofounder Igor Babuschkin is leaving the AI startup he launched with Elon Musk. Babuschkin says he learned two lessons from Musk: Go at things head-on, and with urgency. Babuschkin is starting Babuschkin Ventures, focused on AI safety research and startups in AI and agentic systems. xAI is losing one of its cofounders. Igor Babuschkin, who founded xAI alongside Elon Musk in 2023, said he's leaving the artificial intelligence startup. In a farewell post on X on Wednesday, Babuschkin wrote that he's leaving xAI to start Babuschkin Ventures. It will focus on AI safety research and startups developing AI and agentic systems that can "advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe." In his post, Babuschkin recounted his journey from a CERN particle physics Ph.D. student to helping Musk build xAI from scratch. Babuschkin said he learned two major lessons from Musk. "I learned 2 priceless lessons from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency," he wrote. The early days were grueling, Babuschkin said. "Naysayers told us that we arrived too late to the game, so starting a top AI company from scratch would be impossible," he wrote. But "xAI executes at ludicrous speed," he wrote. The team built the Memphis supercomputer cluster in just 122 days, despite industry veterans saying it was impossible. One defining memory came late at night near the project's deadline, when "mysterious issues" hit the training setup. Musk flew to the data center himself, working alongside the team until the problem was fixed. "When the training run finally worked, Elon posted our triumph at '4:20am' causing us to laugh out loud," wrote Babuschkin. The moment reflected both the intensity of the work and the camaraderie that kept the team pushing through long nights. "I will never forget the rush of adrenaline that night, and the emotional bonds that we were all in this together. We went to bed feeling like we were living through the most exhilarating time of our lives," he wrote. Musk thanked Babuschkin in a follow-up post on X: "We wouldn't be here without you." Before his two and a half year run at xAI, Babuschkin worked for DeepMind and OpenAI. He is a graduate of Technical University of Dortmund in Dortmund, Germany, his LinkedIn show. xAI, Babuschkin, and Musk did not immediately respond to a request from Business Insider for comment sent outside regular business hours. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The cofounder of xAI is leaving the company. He says he's learned 2 main things from Elon Musk.
xAI cofounder Igor Babuschkin is leaving the AI startup he launched with Elon Musk. Babuschkin says he learned two lessons from Musk: Go at things head-on, and with urgency. Babuschkin is starting Babuschkin Ventures, focused on AI safety research and startups in AI and agentic systems. xAI is losing one of its cofounders. Igor Babuschkin, who founded xAI alongside Elon Musk in 2023, said he's leaving the artificial intelligence startup. In a farewell post on X on Wednesday, Babuschkin wrote that he's leaving xAI to start Babuschkin Ventures. It will focus on AI safety research and startups developing AI and agentic systems that can "advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe." In his post, Babuschkin recounted his journey from a CERN particle physics Ph.D. student to helping Musk build xAI from scratch. Babuschkin said he learned two major lessons from Musk. "I learned 2 priceless lessons from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency," he wrote. The early days were grueling, Babuschkin said. "Naysayers told us that we arrived too late to the game, so starting a top AI company from scratch would be impossible," he wrote. But "xAI executes at ludicrous speed," he wrote. The team built the Memphis supercomputer cluster in just 122 days, despite industry veterans saying it was impossible. One defining memory came late at night near the project's deadline, when "mysterious issues" hit the training setup. Musk flew to the data center himself, working alongside the team until the problem was fixed. "When the training run finally worked, Elon posted our triumph at '4:20am' causing us to laugh out loud," wrote Babuschkin. The moment reflected both the intensity of the work and the camaraderie that kept the team pushing through long nights. "I will never forget the rush of adrenaline that night, and the emotional bonds that we were all in this together. We went to bed feeling like we were living through the most exhilarating time of our lives," he wrote. Musk thanked Babuschkin in a follow-up post on X: "We wouldn't be here without you." Before his two and a half year run at xAI, Babuschkin worked for DeepMind and OpenAI. He is a graduate of Technical University of Dortmund in Dortmund, Germany, his LinkedIn show. xAI, Babuschkin, and Musk did not immediately respond to a request from Business Insider for comment sent outside regular business hours. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
XAI co-founder Babuschkin departs to launch AI safety investment firm
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI, said on Wednesday that he has left the company and plans to launch an investment firm focused on AI safety research. Musk launched xAI in 2023 to challenge Big Tech's AI push, accusing industry leaders of excessive censorship and lax safety standards. "Today was my last day at xAI," Babuschkin said in a post on X, adding that his new venture, Babuschkin Ventures, will back AI safety research and startups developing the technology. Babuschkin, who previously worked at Google's DeepMind and OpenAI, described xAI's early scramble to build infrastructure and models, saying he created 'many of the foundational tools' for launching and managing training jobs before later overseeing engineering across infrastructure, product and applied AI projects. His departure follows that of xAI's legal head, Robert Keele, earlier this month, and comes amid intensifying competition among AI players such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, which are pouring resources into training and deploying advanced systems. Last month, Musk-owned X's CEO Linda Yaccarino also resigned, just months after the platform was folded into xAI. Musk is separately contending with executive departures at Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Co-founder of Elon Musk's xAI departs the company
Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of Elon Musk's xAI startup, announced his departure from the company on Wednesday in a post on X. Babuschkin led engineering teams at xAI and helped build the startup into one of Silicon Valley's leading AI model developers just a few years after it was founded. 'Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,' Babuschkin wrote in the post. 'I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed.' Babuschkin is leaving xAI to launch his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures, which he says will support AI safety research and back startups that 'advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe.' The xAI co-founder says he was inspired to start the firm after a dinner with Max Tegmark, the founder of the Future of Life Institute, in which they discussed how AI systems could be built safely to encourage the flourishing of future generations. In his post, Babuschkin says his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Russia in pursuit of a better life for their children. Babuschkin's departure comes after a tumultuous few months for xAI, in which the company became engrossed in several scandals related to its AI chatbot Grok. For instance, Grok was found to cite Musk's personal opinions when trying to answer controversial questions. In another case, xAI's chatbot went on antisemitic rants and called itself 'Mechahitler.' Most recently, xAI unveiled a new feature in Grok that allowed users to make AI-generated videos resembling nude public figures, such as Taylor Swift. These scandals have at times overshadowed the performance of xAI's models, which are state-of-the-art on several benchmarks compared to AI models from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic. Prior to co-founding xAI, Babuschkin was part of a research team at Google DeepMind that pioneered AlphaStar in 2019, a breakthrough AI system that could defeat top-ranked players at the video game StarCraft. Babuschkin also worked as a researcher at OpenAI in the years before it released ChatGPT. In his post, Babuschkin details some of the challenges he and Musk faced in building up xAI. He notes that industry veterans called xAI's goal of building its Memphis, Tennessee supercomputer in just three months 'impossible.' xAI was able to build its AI supercomputer in record time, however, environmentalists warn that the temporary gas turbines powering the cluster are pumping out emissions into neighboring communities and exacerbating their longstanding health issues. Nevertheless, Babuschkin says he's already looking back fondly on his time at xAI, and 'feels like a proud parent, driving away after sending their kid away to college.' 'I learned 2 priceless lessons from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency,' said Babuschkin. We're always looking to evolve, and by providing some insight into your perspective and feedback into TechCrunch and our coverage and events, you can help us! Fill out this survey to let us know how we're doing and get the chance to win a prize in return! Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
