Elon Musk’s new AI company, xAI, has unveiled its first technology called Grok. Grok is an AI bot that is designed to have wit and a rebellious streak, reminiscent of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. According to xAI, Grok is intended to answer the spicy questions that other AI might avoid.
Grok has access to data from X, which gives it an advantage over other AI bots. Musk even shared a side-by-side comparison of Grok answering a question versus another AI bot with less up-to-date information. However, xAI acknowledged that Grok, like any Large Language Model, can still generate false or contradictory information.
Currently in its early beta phase, Grok has undergone two months of training and is only available to a select group of users for testing. Interested users can sign up for a waitlist to try out the bot. Musk has announced that eventually, Grok will be a feature of X Premium+, a subscription service costing $16 per month.
xAI aims to challenge companies like OpenAI, Inflection, and Anthropic. In initial tests involving middle school math problems and Python coding tasks, Grok surpassed other models in its class, albeit with larger data troves achieving better results.
The term Grok was coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his 1961 science fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land. It refers to a Martian term that has no direct translation in English but generally signifies profound understanding and intuition.
The launch of xAI in July brought together a team of former employees from OpenAI, DeepMind, and other companies. Their mission is to build AI that advances humanity’s understanding of the universe. Musk has expressed concern that current AI systems are becoming too politically correct, and xAI aims to create AI that caters to people of all backgrounds and political views. Grok serves as a means to test this approach in public.
In conclusion, Elon Musk’s xAI has introduced Grok, an AI bot with wit and a rebellious streak. It aims to answer the daring questions that other AI bots might shy away from. Grok is currently in the early beta phase and is available for testing to a limited number of users. xAI is positioning itself as a challenger to companies like OpenAI, Inflection, and Anthropic, with Grok showing promising results in initial tests.
