Elon Musk has introduced Grok, an AI chatbot infused with a “rebellious streak,” drawing inspiration from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The billionaire Tesla CEO, who recently issued a warning about AI posing a significant threat to humanity, has announced that Grok will be made available to premium subscribers on his X platform following a testing phase.
Musk also disclosed that Grok possesses the ability to access user posts on X, a platform he owns, and boasts a penchant for delivering sarcastic responses.
As an apparent example of Grok’s playful tone, Musk shared a screenshot of a query to the chatbot, inquiring about a “step-by-step” guide to making cocaine. The response humorously outlined steps like “obtain a chemistry degree” and “set up a clandestine laboratory in a remote location.” However, it concluded with a disclaimer: “Just kidding! Please don’t actually try to make cocaine. It’s illegal, dangerous, and not something I would ever encourage.”
Musk has made it clear that Grok, currently in early testing and not accessible to the general public, will eventually be released to Premium+ subscribers of X’s top-tier subscription service.
The term “Grok” originates from American science fiction writer Robert A Heinlein and is defined in the Collins dictionary as “understanding thoroughly and intuitively.” Musk’s new AI venture, xAI, is behind the creation of Grok, and they emphasized the chatbot’s indebtedness to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a beloved sci-fi comedy by British author Douglas Adams, in a recent blog post.
According to xAI’s team, Grok is designed to answer questions with wit and humor, embodying a rebellious personality, making it a perfect choice for those who appreciate levity. Grok relies on a robust language model, Grok-1, which has outperformed GPT-3.5 on certain benchmarks such as solving middle-school math problems, but it still lags behind the most powerful ChatGPT model, GPT-4. This is because it was trained with less extensive data and computational resources.
The xAI team has initiated a limited prototype rollout of Grok to users in the United States, with plans to introduce new features and capabilities in the coming months. Early access to the chatbot is offered to X subscribers via the “early access program” on the Grok website.
It’s worth noting that Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI, the organization responsible for ChatGPT, but he distanced himself from the company in 2018, citing disagreements with the OpenAI team’s objectives and his other business commitments. His concerns about the rapid pace of AI development prompted him to support a call for a six-month pause in powerful system development in March.
However, in July, Musk expressed a change of heart, announcing the establishment of xAI, with a commitment to develop AI systems “in a good way.” At the AI safety summit at Bletchley Park, he reiterated his belief that AI poses a significant threat to humanity, echoing concerns shared by some experts and tech executives that AI systems could potentially operate beyond human control, making decisions that could jeopardize humanity.
Musk also made the bold prediction that AI, encompassing computer systems capable of tasks associated with intelligent beings, would eventually replace all human jobs, suggesting to the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, that a future might arrive where no jobs are needed at all.
