Grok
Developer(s)xAI
Preview release
Beta / November 4, 2023 (2023-11-04)[1]
Written inRust[2]
TypeChatbot
LicenseProprietary
Websitegrok.x.ai Edit this on Wikidata

Grok is a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, based on a large language model (LLM). It was developed as an initiative by Elon Musk as a direct response to the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT which Musk co-founded.[3] The chatbot is advertised as "having a sense of humor" and direct access to Twitter (X).[4][5] It is currently under beta testing for those with the premium version of X.

Background

Musk co-founded the AI research organisation OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015. Musk left the company's board in 2018, saying of his decision that he "didn't agree with some of what OpenAI team wanted to do".[6] OpenAI went on to launch ChatGPT in 2022, and GPT-4 in March 2023. That month, Elon Musk was one of individuals to sign an open letter from the Future of Life Institute calling for a six-month pause in the development of any AI software more powerful than GPT-4.[7]

In April 2023, Elon Musk said in an interview on Tucker Carlson Tonight that he intended to develop an AI chatbot called "TruthGPT", which he described as "a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe".[6] He expressed concern to Carlson that ChatGPT was being "trained to be politically correct".[8]

TruthGPT would later become known as "Grok", a verb coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his 1961 science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land to describe a form of understanding.[9]

In December 2023 the Silicon Valley start-up Curio launched a range of AI-powered children's toys, including a rocket-shaped character named Grok. The toy is voiced by Musk's ex-girlfriend Grimes, who is also an investor in the start-up, but the product is unrelated to the xAI service.[10]

Launch

In November 2023, xAI began previewing Grok as a chatbot to selected people,[11] with participation in the early access program being limited to paid X Premium users.[12] It was announced that once the bot was out of early beta, it would only be available to higher tier X Premium+ subscribers.[13]

At the time of the preview, xAI described the chatbot as "a very early beta product – the best we could do with 2 months of training" that could "improve rapidly with each passing week".[14]

Features

An xAI statement described the chatbot as having been designed to "answer questions with a bit of wit" and as having "a rebellious streak", as well as a willingness to "answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems".[14] It said that bot had been "modeled after The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything".[14]

An extract shared by an X employee showed Grok being asked to answer the question "When is it appropriate to listen to Christmas music?" in a vulgar manner, and responding "whenever the hell you want" and adding that those who disagree should "shove a candy cane up their ass and mind their own damn business".[15][16] Elon Musk shared a screenshot of Grok giving detailed instructions on how to manufacture cocaine.[17][18] Musk noted that Grok's responses were limited to information already publicly available on the web, which could also be found with regular browser searching.[19]

The chatbot has been characterised as "anti-woke" by the press.[20][21] Musk has said of the OpenAI organization, which seemingly engineered its ChatGPT to have more filters on sensitive topics, that "the danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie – is deadly".[9] Following the chatbot's December 2023 launch to Premium+ subscribers, Grok was found to be giving progressive answers on questions about social justice, climate change and transgender identities.[22] After a researcher claimed to have applied the Political Compass test to Grok and found its responses to be left-wing and libertarian – even slightly more so than ChatGPT – Musk responded saying that xAI would be taking "immediate action to shift Grok closer to politically neutral".[23]

Testing Grok in December 2023, Vice magazine found that it was returning misinformation and false timelines when asked about news events, such as wrongly claiming that the 2023 Israel–Hamas war had reached a ceasefire in early October when it had not.[24]

The chatbot defaults to its "fun mode", which has an "edgy" and editorialized voice, but can be set to "regular mode" where it does not.[24] The Verge compared Grok's fun mode responses to the game Cards Against Humanity, and noted that while the chatbot could be aggressive in tone it was never aggressive to the user.[25] Vice magazine found that Grok's fun mode resulted in "both sides" responses when asked about debunked conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate, where its regular mode would identify the theories as false.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ x.ai
  2. ↑ "Announcing Grok". x.ai. Archived from the original on July 30, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Elon Musk has regrets about ChatGPT, saying he's a 'huge idiot' for letting go of OpenAI". Fortune. Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Elon Musk Says His New AI Bot 'Grok' Will Have Sarcasm and Access to X Information". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 4, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Musk says his new AI chatbot has 'a little humour'". BBC News. November 5, 2023. Archived from the original on November 8, 2023. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  6. 1 2 Jackson, Sarah (April 17, 2023). "Elon Musk says he's planning to create a 'maximum truth-seeking AI' that he likes to call 'TruthGPT'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  7. ↑ Knight, Will (March 29, 2023). "In Sudden Alarm, Tech Doyens Call for a Pause on ChatGPT". Wired. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Elon Musk says he'll create 'TruthGPT' to counter AI 'bias'". The Independent. April 18, 2023. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  9. 1 2 "How Elon Musk's 'spicy' Grok compares to 'woke' ChatGPT". The Independent. November 7, 2023. Archived from the original on December 2, 2023. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
  10. ↑ Lorenz, Taylor (December 14, 2023). "Grimes is working on an interactive AI toy for kids. Meet Grok". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  11. ↑ Picciotto, Rebecca (November 5, 2023). "Elon Musk debuts 'Grok' AI bot to rival ChatGPT, others". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 8, 2023. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  12. ↑ "xAI Grok". grok.x.ai. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Elon Musk unveils new sarcasm-loving AI chatbot for premium X subscribers". The Independent. November 6, 2023. Archived from the original on November 6, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  14. 1 2 3 xAI. "Announcing Grok!". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on November 5, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  15. ↑ Stanley, Christopher (November 5, 2023). "When is it appropriate to listen to Christmas music". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  16. ↑ Carter, Tom. "Elon Musk's new AI chatbot sure sounds like a foul-mouthed Twitter troll". Business Insider. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  17. ↑ Musk, Elon (November 4, 2023). "Ask and you shall receive". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  18. ↑ "Elon Musk's new AI bot will help you make cocaine which proves it's 'rebellious'". The Independent. November 7, 2023. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  19. ↑ Musk, Elon (November 4, 2023). "The threshold for what it will tell you, if pushed, is what is available on the Internet via reasonable browser search, which is a lot …". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Elon Musk Unveils 'Grok' AI Chatbot As Alternative To 'Woke' Rivals Like ChatGPT". Yahoo News. November 6, 2023. Archived from the original on December 2, 2023. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
  21. ↑ "Enter 'Grok,' Elon Musk's Anti-Woke Chatbot". Gizmodo. November 6, 2023. Archived from the original on December 2, 2023. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
  22. ↑ Tassi, Paul. "Elon Musk's Grok Twitter AI Is Actually 'Woke,' Hilarity Ensues". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  23. ↑ Vlamis, Kelsey. "Elon Musk vows to change his AI chatbot after it apparently expressed similar left-wing political views as ChatGPT". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved December 9, 2023.
  24. 1 2 3 "Elon Musk's Grok AI Is Pushing Misinformation and Legitimizing Conspiracies". Vice. December 8, 2023. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Why is Elon Musk's Grok chatbot so unfunny". theverge. December 8, 2023. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
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