“Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor!”~ xAI.
Elon Musk’s new AI venture, xAI, has introduced its first technology named Grok, an open source artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. Inspired by ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,’ Grok is designed to possess a witty personality and to tackle questions other AIs may avoid.
With access to data from X, Grok is expected to have a competitive edge, although xAI acknowledges that, like any Large Language Model (LLM), Grok is still capable of producing inaccurate or conflicting information.
Currently in early beta and two months into its training, Grok is open to a select group of users, with a wider release planned for the future. Interested individuals can join a waitlist to try the bot, which will eventually become a part of the X Premium+ subscription, priced at $16 per month.
Musk positions xAI, backed by a team from OpenAI and DeepMind, as a competitor to existing AI firms. In preliminary tests, Grok has outperformed other models in its compute class on certain tasks, although it is still outmatched by bots with access to larger datasets (like ChatGPT 4.0).
The term ‘Grok’ originates from Robert A. Heinlein’s novel ‘Stranger in a Strange Land,’ signifying a profound, intuitive understanding. xAI, which began in July, aims to create inclusive AI that caters to diverse perspectives, countering the trend of ‘politically correct’ systems. Grok is an experiment to apply xAI’s ethos in a real-world scenario.
