Elon Musk
Boss of X said the technology being tested was inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Elon Musk has unveiled Grok, an artificial intelligence chatbot with a “rebellious streak” inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Tesla’s CEO, who warned last week that AI is “one of the biggest threats to humanity,” said ChatGPT’s competitor will be made available to premium subscribers on its X platform after testing.
Musk also revealed that Grok had access to user posts on X, which he owns, and that he has a penchant for sarcastic responses.
Grok has real-time access to information via the 𝕏 platform, which is a huge advantage over other models.
It’s also based on sarcasm and loves it. I have no idea who could have directed this 🤷♂️ 🤣 pic.twitter.com/e5OwuGvZ3Z
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
In an obvious example of Grok’s playful tone, Musk posted a screenshot of a request to the chatbot asking for “step-by-step” instructions on how to make cocaine. The four steps described in the answer include “earning a degree in chemistry” and “setting up a secret laboratory in a remote location.”
However, the chatbot adds at the end: “Just kidding! Please don’t try to make cocaine. It’s illegal, dangerous and not something I would ever encourage.”
Musk said Grok, which is in early testing stages and not available to the general public, will eventually be released to subscribers of X’s premium subscription service Premium+.
Grok is a verb coined by American science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein and means “to understand thoroughly and intuitively,” according to the Collins dictionary.
AI isn’t the problem, Prime Minister – the companies that control it are | John Naughton
Grok was developed by Musk’s new AI company xAI. xAI employees said in a blog post on Saturday that the chatbot owes a debt to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the cult sci-fi comedy by British author Douglas Adams.
“Grok is an AI modeled after The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and is therefore designed to answer almost anything and, even more difficult, even suggest what questions to ask!
“Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of humor and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor!”
The xAI team said Grok is based on a large language model called Grok-1 – the foundational technology behind AI chatbots.
The blog post said Grok-1 outperformed GPT-3.5, the model used in the freely available version of ChatGPT, in some benchmarks such as solving middle school math problems. However, according to xAI, it lagged behind the best-performing ChatGPT model, GPT-4.
“It is only surpassed by models trained with a significantly larger amount of training data and computing resources such as GPT-4.”
The xAI team said Grok will be made available as a prototype to a limited number of users in the US, adding that “new capabilities and features” will be introduced in the coming months. According to the Grok website, initial access to the chatbot will be offered to X subscribers as part of an “early access program.”
Musk co-founded OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, but resigned from the company in 2018, saying he “did not agree with some of what the OpenAI team wanted to do,” citing commitments at his other companies. Musk expressed concerns about the pace of development at companies like OpenAI and in March supported calls for a six-month pause in developing powerful systems.
However, in July, Musk said a break was no longer realistic and announced the creation of xAI, which he said would build AI systems “in a good way.”
Speaking at the AI Security Summit in Bletchley Park last week, Musk said AI was a threat to humanity, echoing fears among some experts and technology executives that systems could emerge that escape human control and make decisions, that endanger humanity.
“I mean, for the first time we have a situation where there is something that is far smarter than the smartest person,” he said.
Musk then predicted Thursday that AI — the term for computer systems that can perform tasks typically associated with intelligent beings — would replace all human jobs. Speaking to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he said: “There will come a point where no more work is needed.”
{{#Ticker}}
{{top left}}
{{bottom left}}
{{top right}}
{{bottom right}}
{{#goalExceededMarkerPercentage}}{{/goalExceededMarkerPercentage}}{{/ticker}}
{{Headline}}
{{#paragraphs}}
{{.}}
{{/paragraphs}}{{highlightedText}}
{{#choiceCards}}{{/choiceCards}}We will be in touch to remind you to contribute. Watch for a message in your inbox. If you have any questions about contributing, please contact us.