
As the generative AI arms race heats up, Elon Musk has introduced
Macrohard, a crowdsourced name on X. The move challenges Microsoft and others by building a software company run purely by AI.
Musk announced his intention last week -- calling Macrohard
a tongue-in-cheek name, but writing on X that the project is very real.
"In principle, given that software companies like Microsoft do not themselves manufacture any physical hardware, it
should be possible to simulate them entirely with AI," Musk wrote in the post.
That statement, which is only half correct, omits Microsoft’s work in laptops and semiconductors, among
other hardware. Musk must be referring to Microsoft lacking the same type of manufacturing facilities as Tesla.
Microsoft designs plenty of hardware from Surface Book laptops, which I’m
trying on now, to quantum computing chips.
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In February, Microsoft introduced Majorana 1, a quantum chip powered by a
Topological Core architecture that it expects will realize quantum computers capable of solving problems in years, not decades.
Musk's advancements in starting a software company like
Microsoft appear to include advertising. This is part of a two-pronged strategy to compete with Microsoft and OpenAI, and to revive its ad business.
In early August, Musk ran an Ask Me Anything hour-long live session for advertising. The Ask Me
Anything session included Elon Musk and members of the X team.
Bloomberg reported that Musk has spent a lot of time talking about how the company planned to use its merger with his AI company, xAI, to
improve its advertising products, and how he wants to use Grok, xAI’s chatbot, to create targeting profiles of users so the company knows what kinds of products they’re interested in.
"He also wants Grok to help review ads before they run so they adhere to 'some reasonable aesthetic standard' and don’t look like an 'eyesore.' Ads that look nicer
will get better placement in X’s advertising auction," Bloomberg reported, citing what the company executives said during the AMA session.
It’s not just Microsoft that Musk
is after. On Monday two of Musk’s businesses officially sued Apple and OpenAI.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. by X and xAI, takes aim at Apple's decision to integrate OpenAI's
chatbot into the operating systems of its smartphones.
The filing suggests it is an exclusive arrangement that violates competition law, according to reports.
Files by Musk in federal
court in Texas, the lawsuit claims "there is no valid business reason for the Apple-OpenAI deal to be exclusive," reports the BBC, which argues the 2024 arrangement has made it more difficult to
compete and gain access to Apple customers.