Indian American AI researcher Devendra Chaplot has joined Elon Musk’s xAI and SpaceX to collaborate on developing advanced artificial intelligence systems, aiming to create what he calls “superintelligence.”
Devendra Singh Chaplot, an Indian American AI researcher, has joined Elon Musk’s xAI and SpaceX, where he is working closely with Musk and his teams to develop what he describes as “superintelligence.”
A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Chaplot is set to collaborate intimately with the teams at SpaceX and xAI on advanced artificial intelligence systems. He believes that the partnership between these two companies presents a unique opportunity to merge physical and digital intelligence.
Chaplot emphasizes that the high engineering culture and substantial resources available at both SpaceX and xAI could facilitate significant breakthroughs in the creation of advanced AI technologies. He expressed his enthusiasm on social media, stating, “Together SpaceX and xAI combine physical and digital intelligence under a leader who understands hardware at the deepest level. Add a high-agency culture with frontier-scale resources, and you get the possibility to achieve something truly unique.”
In his announcement, Chaplot reflected on his journey in the field of artificial intelligence, saying, “I’m excited to advance the fields I’ve obsessed over for years, from robotics research to building AI models on the founding teams of Mistral and TML. Both were extraordinary journeys with extraordinary people that shaped how I think about building intelligence from the ground up.”
Chaplot expressed gratitude for the experiences that led him to this point, adding, “Grateful for everything that brought me here and can’t wait to get started.”
He holds a Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree in Computer Science and Engineering, along with a minor in Applied Statistics from IIT Bombay. Chaplot later earned a PhD in machine learning from Carnegie Mellon University, a renowned institution in the field of artificial intelligence, where he focused on building intelligent autonomous navigation agents.
Throughout his career, Chaplot has worked at the intersection of machine learning, robotics, and computer vision. His contributions include the development of smart systems capable of perceiving and interacting with their environments.
Prior to joining xAI and SpaceX, Chaplot was part of the founding team at Thinking Machines Lab, where he worked on research and product development, including the creation of Tinker, a training API that enables users to train large language models (LLMs).
Before that, he was a founding member of Mistral AI, where he contributed to the training of several models, including Mistral 7B, Mixtral 8x7B, and Mistral Large. He also led the multimodal research team responsible for training Pixtral 12B and Pixtral Large, and established the Mistral U.S. office in Palo Alto.
Earlier in his career, Chaplot served as a research scientist at Facebook AI Research, where he focused on the convergence of computer vision and robotics.
As Chaplot embarks on this new chapter with Musk’s teams, the AI community is keenly watching for the innovations that may emerge from this collaboration, which aims to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence.
According to The American Bazaar, Chaplot’s expertise and experience position him as a significant contributor to the ambitious goals of xAI and SpaceX.