During a federal court hearing on Thursday, Elon Musk appeared to acknowledge that his artificial intelligence company, xAI, has utilized OpenAI's models to train its own. The revelation came while Musk was being cross-examined by an OpenAI attorney as part of the ongoing legal dispute between the two parties.
The exchange, captured by WIRED, unfolded as follows:
OpenAI Lawyer William Savitt: Do you know what distillation is? Musk: It means to use one AI model to train another AI model. Savitt: Has xAI done that with OpenAI? Musk: Generally all the AI companies [do that]. Savitt: So that's a yes. Musk: Partly.
Distillation is a technique where a smaller AI model learns to replicate the behavior of a larger, more advanced model, resulting in a cheaper and faster system that retains much of the original's capabilities.
Musk argued that using competitors' models for training is standard practice across the AI industry. The admission adds a new dimension to his lawsuit against OpenAI, which accuses the company of abandoning its original nonprofit mission.