NEWS  AI  November 5, 2023  Reading time: 3 Minute(s)

Max (RS editor)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has introduced Grok, a groundbreaking artificial intelligence chatbot that draws inspiration from the whimsical universe of 'The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.' This announcement comes on the heels of Musk's recent warning about the substantial threat posed by AI to humanity.

Grok is set to become a formidable contender to ChatGPT, and it will be initially offered to premium subscribers on Musk's X platform following a period of rigorous testing. Musk has disclosed that Grok has access to user posts on X, a platform he owns, and possesses a penchant for delivering sarcastic responses. He even provided an example of Grok's playful nature with a screenshot of a query that facetiously asked for a "step by step" guide to producing cocaine. While the chatbot humorously outlined four steps, it concluded with a stern disclaimer, advising against attempting any illegal activities.

As of now, Grok remains in its early testing phase and is not available to the general public. Musk envisions a future where Grok will be accessible to subscribers of X's premium-tier service, Premium+.

The term "Grok" was originally coined by American science fiction writer Robert A Heinlein and is defined by the Collins dictionary as "understanding something thoroughly and intuitively." Grok has been developed by Musk's new AI venture, xAI. The team at xAI has drawn clear inspiration from 'The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,' a cult sci-fi comedy by British author Douglas Adams, and they aim for Grok to provide witty and insightful responses.

According to xAI, Grok is powered by a robust language model known as Grok-1. While it has surpassed GPT-3.5 in certain benchmarks, it still lags behind the most potent ChatGPT model, GPT-4. The xAI team explained that Grok-1 is only outperformed by models that have been trained with a significantly larger volume of data and computing resources, like GPT-4.

For now, Grok is being made available as a prototype to a limited number of users in the United States, with plans to introduce new features and capabilities in the upcoming months. Early access to this AI chatbot is being offered to X subscribers through an "early access program" on the Grok website.

It is worth noting that Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, but he stepped away from the company in 2018 due to disagreements with its direction and his commitments to other enterprises. Musk's concerns about the rapid advancement of AI systems have been evident in his previous calls for a pause in their development. However, his recent establishment of xAI reflects his determination to build AI systems "in a good way."

At the AI safety summit at Bletchley Park, Musk reiterated his concerns about AI's potential to surpass human intelligence, echoing the apprehensions of experts and tech executives regarding the emergence of systems that could evade human control and pose risks to humanity. He even predicted that AI might eventually replace all human jobs, emphasizing the transformative potential of this technology.