Elon Musk Officially Enters Generative AI Race with Grok AI Chatbot

Elon Musk is officially kicking off the race for generative AI with the X platform. Elon Musk’s new artificial intelligence company, xAI, unveiled Grok, its first-ever AI chatbot. Prior to its wider release, the prototype will only be accessible to a small group of users during its first two months of training. Grok is going to be incorporated into the social media network X soon. After it emerges from beta, it will be made available to all X Premium+ subscribers and function as a stand-alone app. X unveiled its X Premium+ tier, which removes advertisements from the timeline and grants access to all X Premium features for $16 a month.

xAI’s Grok system is designed to have a little humor in its responses pic.twitter.com/WqXxlwI6ef

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023

What is the Grok AI chatbot?

Grok is anticipated to challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to xAI. Grok is the first product from Elon Musk’s recently founded AI startup, xAI. The company claims that Grok is an AI that was inspired by “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and is designed to be able to respond to practically any query and, even more challenging, recommend what queries to pose. According to the AI startup, Grok is built with a rebellious streak and a sense of humor to respond to inquiries. If a user detests humor, it advises against using it. Grok has an advantage because it can access data from the X platform as well. Musk shared a side-by-side comparison of another AI chatbot with less up-to-date knowledge and Grok’s response to queries.

Example of Grok vs typical GPT, where Grok has current information, but other doesn’t pic.twitter.com/hBRXmQ8KFi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2023

According to xAI, Grok is presently in its early beta phase. The company assured users that, with their assistance, the AI chatbot would advance over the next few weeks. As with any Large Language Model, or LLM, Grok is not immune to producing inaccurate or contradictory data. After just two months of training, the prototype is now in its beta phase and can be tested by a small group of users before the company releases it to the general public. For a chance to use the bot, users can join a waitlist. Using Elon’s army of citizen journalists as its model, Grok is probably a right-leaning disinformation machine that allows users to share anything they want on the app.

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Where is the name Grok derived from?

Robert A. Heinlein was the first person to create the term ‘Grok’ in his 1961 science fiction book “Stranger in a Strange Land.” “Grok” is a Martian term used in the book that has no exact translation into English. The precise meaning of the word has been disputed by critics, but they have ultimately agreed that it refers to a profound sense of intuition or empathy. It is simply defined as a translative verb that means “to understand profoundly and intuitively” by Merriam-Webster.

Why Grok?

By creating and improving Grok, xAI aims to

• Input generation: Get input and make sure AI is developed to produce tools that are most beneficial to all people. The company thinks it’s critical to create AI tools that benefit individuals from diverse backgrounds and political perspectives. In accordance with the law, it also seeks to give users access to AI tools. Grok aims to investigate and showcase its methodology in a public setting.
• Empowerment and innovative research: xAI aims to make Grok a potent research assistant that anyone can use to quickly access pertinent information, process data, and generate new ideas.

All Inclusive Platform

After two months of development, Grok will be released to all X Premium+ subscribers once it has completed testing. Musk has expressed his desire to transform X from a social network into a multipurpose app similar to Tencent Holding Ltd.’s WeChat in China. Grok would be crucial to creating that; although xAI is a different company, it says it plans to collaborate closely with Tesla, X, and other companies.

Quick look at xAI

Elon’s AI system differs primarily in that it is designed to be anti-woke and to censor less potentially sensible topics. Elon had taken issue with what he saw as ChatGPT’s censorship of some answers on particular subjects. In order to better represent truth according to his own definition and experience, he started his own artificial intelligence project. The CEO of Space X and Tesla seems to be presenting xAI as a rival to businesses such as OpenAI, Inflection, and Anthropic. In July, xAI made its debut with a team that included former workers from DeepMind, OpenAI, and other companies. The company’s stated goal is to develop artificial intelligence in order to increase our understanding of the cosmos. Musk has previously expressed his opinion that modern AI developers are leaning too much toward politically correct systems. However, xAI’s goal is to create AI for people of all backgrounds and political views.

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How will the Grok AI Chatbot?

Elon thinks that Grok will be a more reliable source of information, especially when it comes to breaking news stories. This is because  Grok gets its data from X. Furthermore, it is permitted by X’s updated user agreement to use users’ posts as fuel for the system, . Additionally, X has been attempting to block access to its API for other generative AI projects, particularly OpenAI, with whom Musk has personal issues. Grok and X’s other AI projects will therefore be among the select few who have complete access to the entire Y firehouse of data.

Ongoing Issues with X

This should be a big benefit in a few ways, at least theoretically. However, Musk made numerous changes to the app, including a number of updates meant to discredit mainstream news sources. It has also caused X to lose popularity as a major forum for news discussions. As a result, many journalists have moved to other platforms. And while X boasts 244 million daily active users, very few of them actually post anything on the app. Hence any change in this regard is significant. Eighty percent of its users, according to X, are in read-only mode and never post or interact in any way. This indicates that X’s daily input of 100 million unique posts is unavailable.

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