Elon Musk Denies Talks With Israeli Autonomous AI Firm Cortica

March 21, 2018 | Entrepreneur Elon Musk has denied reports that he is in talks with Tel Aviv-based AI vision company Cortica during his trip to Israel this week, tweeting, “This is completely false. Never heard of Cortica. Just taking my kids on a Spring Break trip to see ancient sites in Israel & Jordan.” Musk’s electric car company Tesla, which is said to be looking for possible collaboration, investment or acquisition with the Israeli AI firm, has also denied the talks, Globes reports. But sources very close to the subject have told Globes that Cortica is indeed in talks with Tesla and that the talks were initiated by Tesla, which is interested in a collaboration. No deal has yet been reached. Cortica, founded in 2007, develops AI technology for visual perception and has raised close to $70 million over the course of its existence. It has registered at least 200 patents, the company says, and its tech for understanding images has a number of applications including in autonomous vehicles, smart city, security cameras, drones, media, robotics, and medical image analysis. Musk has posted a number of images on social media during his trip to Israel, including from Jerusalem and Masada. Cortica declined to comment, according to Globes.