Openai · Wired
Elon Musk Seemingly Admits xAI Has Leveraged OpenAI’s Models to Teach Its Own
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 2 outlets. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◎ Multiple-sources
While testifying on Thursday in federal court, Elon Musk seemed to indicate that his AI lab may have used OpenAI’s models to train xAI’s own.
Key facts
- Michael Kratsios, the White House’s director of the office of science and technology policy, said in an April 2026 memo that it would share information with US AI companies about foreign distillation
- While testifying on Thursday in federal court, Elon Musk seemed to indicate that his AI lab may have used OpenAI’s models to train xAI’s own
- The Trump administration has also taken steps to prevent Chinese companies from distilling American AI models
- Musk: It means to use one AI model to train another AI model
Summary
This is the exchange, as best as WIRED could capture it:. Distillation is a technique where a smaller AI model is trained to mimic the behavior of a larger, more capable model, making it cheaper and faster to run while preserving much of its performance. OpenAI’s lawyer, William Savitt, then asked whether OpenAI’s technology had been used in any way to develop xAI. OpenAI and xAI did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.