New Delhi: Devendra Singh Chaplot, a distinguished alumnus of IIT Bombay and Carnegie Mellon University, has joined Elon Musk’s SpaceX and xAI, where he will collaborate closely with Musk and his team on projects aimed at developing superintelligence. Musk himself welcomed Chaplot on X, highlighting the importance of his expertise at the intersection of AI and aerospace technology.
Chaplot’s academic journey began at IIT Bombay, where he graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science & Engineering, alongside a minor in Applied Statistics. He excelled in his studies, achieving a CGPA of 9.51/10 in core subjects. His education continued at Carnegie Mellon University, where he obtained a Master’s in Language Technology with a near-perfect GPA, followed by a Ph.D. in Machine Learning. During his doctoral studies, he worked with renowned professors Ruslan Salakhutdinov and Abhinav Gupta, focusing on developing intelligent autonomous navigation agents that integrate robotics, computer vision, and AI.
Following his academic pursuits, Chaplot gained valuable experience at several leading tech companies. He began as a Research Associate at Samsung Electronics in South Korea, later contributing to Apple’s Special Projects Group. However, his most significant contributions came during his tenure at Facebook AI Research (FAIR), where he worked on groundbreaking projects that merged computer vision with robotics.
Chaplot then played a pivotal role in the founding teams of two prominent AI startups. At Mistral AI, he was instrumental in training advanced models such as Mistral 7B, Mixtral 8x7B, and Mistral Large, while leading the multimodal research team responsible for developing Pixtral 12B and Pixtral Large. He also established and managed Mistral’s U.S. office in Palo Alto. At Thinking Machines Lab, he engaged in both research and product development, including the creation of Tinker, an API designed to enable users to train large language models.
In his announcement post, Chaplot expressed enthusiasm about merging physical and digital intelligence at SpaceX and xAI. He praised Musk’s deep understanding of hardware and emphasized the unique culture of high-agency innovation that characterizes these companies. Chaplot views this opportunity as a significant step toward advancing his long-held passions for robotics, AI model training, and foundational intelligence development.
Chaplot’s career trajectory—from IIT Bombay to Carnegie Mellon, and from FAIR to Mistral and Thinking Machines Lab—demonstrates a consistent commitment to pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence. By joining SpaceX and xAI, he positions himself at the forefront of Musk’s ambitious vision to integrate AI with real-world engineering challenges. This move not only reflects Chaplot’s personal aspirations but also underscores the growing intersection of AI and aerospace, a field that continues to attract some of the brightest minds in technology.
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