Elon Musk has unveiled a new joint project between Tesla and xAI called “Macrohard” or “Digital Optimus”, which the billionaire says is emulating the function of entire companies. The billionaire had earlier announced Macrohard last year as an effort to replicate the work done by Microsoft entirely via AI.
However, on Wednesday, said that Macrohard is now a joint project between xAI and Tesla. The new project comes shortly after Tesla agreed to invest around $2 billion in xAI.
Musk says that the new project will run on the ‘super low cost AI4’ chip. The billionaire noted that Grok AI will act as a ‘sophisticated version of turn-by-turn navigation software’ alongside Tesla’s Digital Optimus system which will process real-time computer screen video and keyboard/mouse actions.
“ is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct Digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past 5 secs of real-time computer screen video and keyboard/mouse actions. Grok is like a much more advanced and sophisticated version of turn-by-turn navigation software.” Musk wrote in a post on X.
“In principle, it is capable of emulating the function of entire companies. That is why the program is called MACROHARD, a funny reference to Microsoft. No other company can yet do this.” Musk added.
Musk had first unveiled Macrohard back in August last year. The same month, xAI had also filed a trademark application for ‘Macrohard’.
Notably, Anthropic’s launch of the Claude Cowork agent and subsequent 11 plugins that target high professionals had led to stocks of major IT firms plunging last month.
Last month, SpaceX had acquired xAI in an all-stock deal which valued the aerospace company at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. The rocket maker is also set to have its IPO later this year.
Controversies around Grok AI:
Meanwhile, Musk’s has been at the centre of several controversies over the last year including just a few months back when the chatbot was used on X in order to generate sexualized images of women and children. The controversy had led to xAI getting warnings from several governments while countries like Indonesia and Malaysia implemented a temporary block on the chatbot.
Musk’s company then had to implement stricter safeguards on the chatbot, later leading to the ban being reversed. However, the controversies have not stopped Musk from promoting his chatbot which he often calls the most truthful AI in the market.