Big news in AI! Elon Musk, super plans revealed!

As the “Lobster Farming” craze sweeps the domestic market, Tesla founder Elon Musk has revealed his new project.

Recently, Musk disclosed on social media a new initiative developed in collaboration between Tesla and the AI startup xAI, called “Digital Optimus”(.

The project is a joint development by Musk’s xAI and Tesla, aiming to create an “AI Digital Employee” capable of controlling computers and automatically executing tasks. The core engine of this intelligent agent uses xAI’s independently developed Grok large model, giving it powerful reasoning capabilities. Musk claims that this technology “in principle, can even simulate the operations of an entire company.”

AI Upgraded to “Execution Entity”

Musk’s exposure of “Digital Optimus” and the popularity of the domestic “Lobster Farming” market both signify that artificial intelligence is entering the next stage of “truly getting things done.”

It is reported that “Digital Optimus” is similar in positioning to the current hot topic, OpenClaw), with its core value being the ability to “actually get hands dirty” and complete tasks, digitizing any workflow that relies on keyboard, mouse, and screen-based decision-making. The system plans to run on Tesla’s self-developed AI4 chips and will be combined with NVIDIA hardware-based servers used by xAI. Musk states that this combination is cost-competitive.

This project is part of Tesla’s $2 billion investment agreement with xAI reached in January this year. In theory, it can simulate workflows within different departments of a software company, and in the future, it may also form a soft- and hardware synergy with Tesla’s humanoid robot “Optimus.” Foreign media reports suggest that if successful, it could disrupt traditional software vendors that rely on platform-dependent manual operations.

Ping An International points out that the surge in applications of OpenClaw marks the official transition of the AI industry from “dialogue-based interaction” to “action-based interaction,” breaking the traditional AI limitation of “talking but not doing,” and promoting AI from an “assistant tool” to an “execution entity.” It has achieved a fundamental leap from AI providing suggestions to delivering results, making AI truly integrated into workflows as a “digital employee.” Additionally, it greatly lowers the barrier to AI automation, enabling individuals and small teams to build their own automation workflows at very low costs, fostering new work models.

xAI Company Is Facing Turmoil

Although Musk ambitiously announced the new “Digital Optimus” project, internal turmoil is brewing within xAI. Due to dissatisfaction with the performance of the company’s programming department, Musk has initiated a new round of layoffs, forcing several co-founders to leave.

Musk admitted on social media: “When xAI was first built, it was not perfect, so we are now rebuilding from the ground up. Tesla has experienced the same.”

Foreign media reports say that after Musk merged xAI with SpaceX last month, he carried out a thorough management overhaul of xAI. He brought in “restructurers” from SpaceX and Tesla to audit xAI, resulting in the dismissal of several employees considered underperforming.

xAI co-founder Zhang Guodong previously served as head of the xAI Imagine team. According to two informed sources, due to issues with the coding products, he was relieved of his main responsibilities by Musk, and he later informed colleagues that he would leave the company. Zhang Guodong also confirmed his departure with a post on X platform on Thursday. Additionally, another co-founder, Zihang Dai(, also left the company earlier this week.

However, while layoffs are ongoing, Musk is also quickly recruiting new talent. Reports indicate that xAI recently poached executives Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg from Cursor. Musk also posted welcoming the founding members of Thinking Machines, Devendra Chaplot, to join xAI.

Musk stated: “Over the past few years, many talented people have been rejected or even rejected interview opportunities by xAI. I apologize for that.” He also said he would reconnect with potential candidates.