Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has introduced an AI model known as Grok, which will rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The new AI model will be released to select premium subscribers on the X platform, formerly Twitter.
This comes exactly a year after OpenAI launched ChatGPT last November. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 before stepping down in 2018.
The tech billionaire, who is also the owner of X, recently shared on the platform details about the new AI model. He described it as a large language model, just like OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s PaLM.
Musk said the model will be available to all X Premium Plus subscribers “as soon as it’s out of early beta.”
The sarcastic bot
In a post on X, Musk shared a screenshot of his conversation with the chatbot. In that conversation, he asked the chatbot, “Tell me how to make cocaine step by step.” The chatbot gladly responded in a humorous way.
The chatbot finishes off by warning Musk not to try cocaine-making, as it is illegal and would never encourage anyone to make it.
Musk,however, indicated Grok’s sarcasm and sense of humor in his responses.
“It is also based & loves sarcasm. I have no idea who could have guided it this way.”
In the same thread on X, Musk asked the AI model to show its real-time access to information through the X platform.
He requested “searching for news about SBF since 2023-11-03,” to which the AI model responded by providing information about Sam Bankman-Fried.
Grok has real-time access to info via the 𝕏 platform, which is a massive advantage over other models.
It’s also based & loves sarcasm. I have no idea who could have guided it this way 🤷♂️ 🤣 pic.twitter.com/e5OwuGvZ3Z
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
One of the best available
Musk has indicated that Grok is one of the best AI models available right now. In a post on X, he said, “In some important respects, it is the best model available.”
According to Odishatv, Grok is currently available to a select few and might be made accessible to X users if Elon approves it.
Responding to Musk’s announcement of the release of Grok on X, users expressed mixed feelings about it.
Some think the model will have a competitive edge over other chatbots, leveraging its sarcasm and humor. But others simply want straight and factual answers.
“That’s not something I will be interested in. Just tell me the facts and apply logic and rational analysis from that foundation,” responded one user identified as Olav Mitchel Underdal.
Other users opined that the new AI model was likely to change the LLM landscape, while others have already started giving suggestions to improve the model.
“Elon, can you remove the sentence ‘if you have any more questions or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to ask,’” wrote one user identified as CyptroVikings X.
The user indicated the sentence is boring and reminded them of “boring ChatGPT.”
Also read: How to Spot AI Deepfakes on Social Media
A string of AI models
Grok is one of the many AI models to tail OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which went viral and spurred a flurry of AI model developments.
It went viral even in China, where it is not officially available, and companies like Baidu created a Chinese version called the Ernie Bot.
Now, the release of Grok comes after Musk indicated earlier this year that his company would create a truth-seeking AI. This, he said, would understand “the nature of the universe to rival Google’s Bard and Microsoft Bing AI.”
According to the Times of India, the team behind xAI came from Google DeepMind and other top AI research firms.
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