Elon Musk recently introduced Grok, an AI chatbot inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Musk, who has been vocal about the potential dangers of AI, announced that Grok would be available to premium subscribers on his X platform after testing. He also mentioned that Grok has access to user posts on the X platform and has a witty and sarcastic personality.
Grok, powered by the X platform, has real-time access to information, giving it an advantage over other AI models. In a tweet, Musk shared an example of Grok’s playful tone, where it humorously responded to a query about making cocaine. Musk clarified that Grok is currently in the early testing phase and not yet available to the general public. However, it will eventually be released to subscribers of X’s top-tier subscription service, Premium+.
The term “Grok” was coined by science fiction writer Robert A Heinlein and means to understand thoroughly and intuitively. Musk’s new AI company, xAI, has built Grok, and their team explained its connection to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in a blog post. They described Grok as an AI that can answer questions and even suggest new ones. It is designed to have a rebellious streak and a sense of humor.
Grok-1, the language model powering Grok, has outperformed GPT-3.5, the model used in the freely available version of ChatGPT, in certain benchmarks. However, it still lags behind the most powerful ChatGPT model, GPT-4. The xAI team announced that Grok is currently being tested as a prototype by a limited number of users in the US. They also mentioned that new capabilities and features will be added in the coming months.
If you are an X subscriber, you may have early access to Grok through their “early access program”. It’s worth noting that Musk co-founded OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, but left in 2018 due to disagreements. He has expressed concerns about the rapid development of AI systems and has called for a pause in their development in the past. However, he recently formed xAI to build AI systems in a responsible manner.
During the AI safety summit, Musk reiterated his concerns about AI, stating that it poses a threat to humanity. He believes that AI has the potential to surpass human intelligence and eventually replace all human jobs.
