Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, expressed a desire to rehire Andrej Karpathy, the previously banished Tesla AI chief, according to recent reports.
In a recent turn of events, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, extended an invitation to Andrej Karpathy, the prominent AI figure who previously led Tesla's Autopilot team, to rejoin the company. The invitation was made public via a message on X (formerly Twitter), following Karpathy's praise for Tesla's new diner and Supercharger in Los Angeles.
Karpathy, who left Tesla in July 2022 after five years, had since focused on his own educational startup, Eureka Labs AI. His current commitment to this venture suggests that he may not be planning to return to Tesla just yet. However, there are no reports or statements from Karpathy indicating whether he has accepted or declined Musk's offer.
During his time at Tesla, Karpathy played a significant role in scaling the company's AI efforts to power Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD). He joined the company when it had just two people training neural networks and led the team during a crucial period in the company's self-driving development.
Musk's invitation comes at an exciting time for Tesla, as the company is currently piloting unsupervised FSD in Austin and ramping up for a full Robotaxi rollout. Tesla is also working on the Optimus humanoid robot, a project that could potentially see Karpathy's return impacting AI projects across Musk's companies.
Karpathy's expertise in deep learning, computer vision, and large-scale model training could be valuable to Tesla's ongoing AI initiatives. Musk's new AI venture, xAI, also has ambitions for artificial general intelligence (AGI), and Karpathy was a founding member of OpenAI.
In his message on X (formerly Twitter), Musk referred to Karpathy as his "long lost brother," hinting at a close working relationship between the two. The Tesla Diner in Los Angeles, a Supercharger-restaurant-drive-in movie theater hybrid, was another point of praise from Karpathy, who commended the establishment in a separate post.
As the situation develops, it remains to be seen whether Karpathy will accept Musk's invitation and return to Tesla. Regardless, his departure from the company in 2022 marked a significant milestone in Tesla's AI journey, and his potential return could signal a new chapter in the company's self-driving development.
Karpathy's expertise in the fields of deep learning, computer vision, and large-scale model training could be utilizable in Tesla's ongoing artificial-intelligence initiatives, especially since Musk's new AI venture, xAI, aims for artificial general intelligence (AGI). Given Karpathy's vital role in scaling Tesla's AI efforts during his tenure, his potential return could significantly influence AI projects across Musk's companies, including the Optimus humanoid robot and unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD).
