Can Elon Musk Disrupt Health Care’s Booming AI Field?

When Elon Musk launched his artificial intelligence company xAI last July, it came with the usual grandiose mission that has come to define companies in the sector. The company would focus on AI solutions that are “truthful, competent and maximally beneficial for all humanity.”

Whether xAI ever fulfills that mission remains to be seen, but the company already is showing that it can raise capital to compete with some heavy hitters in the AI field like Microsoft and Google. xAI recently launched a $6 billion Series B funding round that will be used to fund product research and development across many fields.

And at least one health care tech analyst believes the work that xAI is doing has significant potential to disrupt health care. The most obvious entry point for xAI in health care will be similar to what other tech giants are doing, notes Forbes contributor Sai Balasubramanian, M.D., J.D.: Increase task automation, improve clinical workflows and optimize clinician productivity.

xAI began laying the foundation for its systems with the launch in November of its Grok-1 AI model that was designed to answer nearly any question. Since then, the company has released the updated Grok-1.5 model and Grok-1.5V with image understanding.

These and other tools create training foundation models that could fit into the daily health care workflow, Balasubramanian explains in a recent report.

Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, could bring together his parallel interests with his company Neuralink, which has demonstrated success with its brain computer-interface technology. Neuralink is now focused on giving quadriplegics the ability to control their computers and mobile devices with their thoughts.

Neuralink recently announced the first human implantation of the technology, which the company states is a significant milestone to potentially restore autonomy to millions of people with unmet medical needs. Although xAI and Neuralink are not yet related in an obvious manner, there is significant potential to cross-pollinate between the platforms, Balasubramanian says.