Even after OpenAI reportedly pulled the plug on its video generation model Sora AI due to high costs, Elon Musk is doubling down on xAI’s Grok Imagine model. The tech billionaire described video understanding and generation as essential tools for achieving AGI. Musk made the comment while replying to a post that claimed OpenAI’s Sora video platform was losing around $1 million per day (about Rs 9.39 crore) before it was shut down.
In his response, Elon Musk said that xAI’s “Imagine” feature earns more money than it costs to run. In other words, the feature operates with a positive gross margin and is not losing money. While OpenAI has said it wants to redirect Sora’s computational power towards productivity tools, Musk emphasised that video will play a major role in the future of AI.
Why Musk believes video is crucial for AGI
Musk described video understanding and generation as essential for achieving AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence. AGI refers to AI systems that can understand and perform any intellectual task at the level of humans. According to Musk’s view, video is important because it contains far more information than text or speech.
For AI to reach human-level intelligence, it needs to observe the world, understand physical actions, interpret human behaviour, and learn from visual environments.
Compared with text or audio, visual information carries significantly more data. Video understanding can help AI learn how objects move, how people interact, and how cause and effect work in the real world. Much like humans learn by watching, AI systems could also learn from visual experiences.
Musk’s timeline for achieving AGI
Elon Musk previously shared his updated timeline for achieving AGI during an all-hands meeting at xAI’s San Francisco headquarters in December 2025. According to a report by Business Insider, Musk said he is confident that the company could reach this milestone within two years, possibly as early as 2026.
Earlier, the tech billionaire had suggested that the upcoming Grok 5 AI model had about a 10 per cent chance of reaching AGI. The Grok 5 model has not been released yet. While Musk has indicated that xAI could achieve AGI in the near future, he also noted that reaching this milestone would require a significant amount of work behind the scenes.
The report also stated that Musk believes AGI developed at xAI could surpass human intelligence and potentially make his company one of the most powerful AI firms.
