Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, recently announced the launch of his latest artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot named Grok. This chatbot is the first product from Musk’s AI startup, xAI. Grok is claimed to be an AI chatbot with intelligence, humor, and a rebellious nature.
Grok was created using a large language model called Grok-1, which was developed by xAI over the past four months. Grok-1 is said to have surpassed GPT-3.5, the model used by ChatGPT, one of the popular AI chatbots created by OpenAI. However, Grok-1 is still inferior to ChatGPT’s strongest model, GPT-4.
Grok differs from other AI chatbots because it has real-time information access through the X platform, previously known as Twitter. X is a social media platform that Musk bought for billions of dollars and then renamed to X Corp. Grok will be exclusively released to Premium+ customers on X after the trial period.
Grok is inspired by the classic science fiction book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. Grok is designed to answer almost any question and even suggest what questions should be asked. Grok also has a bit of intelligence and a rebellious nature, so it can answer “spicy questions” that are usually avoided or banned by other AI systems.
Musk gave an example of Grok’s humorous answer by displaying a screenshot of a question about how to make cocaine. Grok’s answer contains four steps including “obtaining a chemistry degree” and “setting up a secret laboratory in a remote location”. However, at the end of the answer, Grok added: “Just kidding! Don’t try to make cocaine. It’s illegal, dangerous, and not something I would support.”
Musk said Grok is still an early beta product, so it still needs a lot of improvements and feedback. Musk also said Grok will answer questions using data from X, which is a major advantage over other models. Musk also hinted that Grok likes sarcasm. “Who made it like this. I don’t know,” Musk tweeted.
Musk has a great interest in AI and has warned about the need to manage the risks posed by this evolving technology. Musk is one of the founders and early supporters of OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT. However, Musk’s relationship with OpenAI has deteriorated. Musk criticized ChatGPT for being perceived as having a liberal bias. “What we need is TruthGPT,” Musk tweeted last February.
Musk also disagreed with how ChatGPT is run and its close relationship with Microsoft. “It seems strange that something can be non-profit, open source, and somehow turn into profit, closed source,” Musk said in an interview with CNBC.
Last March, Musk signed an open letter calling for a halt to the “Giant AI Experiment”, which has now been signed by about 33,000 people. In an interview with the BBC last April, Musk said he has been concerned about AI safety for over a decade. “I think for the future there should be a regulatory body to oversee AI so it doesn’t pose a danger to the public,” he said.
Musk also competes with other AI companies because of the data they use to train chatbots – software that learns how humans interact by taking data from various sources to enrich its knowledge and interaction style. This billionaire believes that a lot of X data is absorbed from his platform, and that his company should receive appropriate compensation.
xAI said the company is separate from X Corp, but will “work together with X, Tesla, and other companies to make progress toward our mission.” xAI’s mission is to “understand the true nature of the universe.”
