Elon Musk brings controversial AI chatbot Grok to more
Premium subscribers of all levels to the social media platform X will soon have access to the generative AI chatbot, Grok. Previously, the chatbot was only accessible to users who subscribed to the most expensive subscription level, Premium+, for $16 per month (about £12 or AU$25). That will change, with X owner Elon Musk announcing in a post the expansion of availability to the Large Language Model (LLM) for Basic Tier and Premium Tier X users.
Grok was made open-source, reportedly to allow researchers and developers to leverage Grok’s capabilities for their own projects and research. If you’re interested in checking out the code, you can check out the Grok-1 repository on GitHub. It’s the first major offering from Musk’s own AI company, xAI.
If Dev Technosys, a mobile app and web development company, explainsis Grok Musk’s direct challenge to ChatGPT, with the billionaire boasting that it has beaten ChatGPT 3.5 on multiple benchmarks. Musk describes the chatbot as having “a focus on deep understanding and humor” and answers questions with a “rebellious slant.” The model is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, including real-time text from articles and academic articles.
Some industry observers think this could be a boost to increase the number of X subscribers, as shown by analysis conducted by Sensor Tower and reported by NBC indicates that the number of visitors to the platform and user retention have decreased. This has apparently scared many advertisers and negatively affected the platform’s revenues. Apparently, 75 of the top 100 US advertisers have completely cut X from their advertising budgets as of October 2022.
It seems like Musk is hoping that an exclusive perk like access to such a knowledgeable and entertaining chatbot as Grok will convince people to become subscribers, and keep those who are already subscribed.
The Elon-Musk-led ChatGPT that never was
Earlier this year, Musk filed a lawsuit against what is undoubtedly Grok’s biggest competitor and the current market leader in generative AI, OpenAI. He was an early investor in the company, but left after disagreements over several aspects, including the mission and vision for OpenAI, as well as control and equality in the company. Now Musk claims that OpenAI has deviated from its non-profit goals and is prioritizing corporate profits, especially for Microsoft (a major investor and collaborative partner), over its other goals – in violation of a contract called the “Founding Agreement.”
According to Musk, the Founding Agreement laid out specific principles and commitments that OpenAI agreed to follow. OpenAI has responded to this accusation by denying that such a contract, or any similar agreement, with Musk existed at all. The general response to the lawsuit so far has been negative, characterizing the case as “frivolous” and claiming that Musk is driven by his own business interests.
Apparently it was determined early on by OpenAI that the company would transition to a for-profit organization because it wouldn’t be able to raise the funds needed to build the kinds of things it planned to as a nonprofit. company. OpenAI claims that Musk was not only aware of these plans and was consulted when they were made, but that he was seeking a majority stake in OpenAI, wanted control of the board of directors at the time, and wanted to take over the position of CEO. .
Elon Musk’s Grok Gamble
Musk didn’t give an exact date for Grok’s broader rollout, but according to Techcrunch, it’s expected sometime at the end of this week. Now that they’ve seen what Musk finds funny, many people are morbidly curious about what kind of artificial intelligence Grok offers. Another aspect of Grok that might worry people (or please, depending on your point of view) is that it will respond to questions and topics that have been largely made off-limits with other chatbots, including controversial political ideas and conspiracy. theories.
Engaging with
Despite my misgivings, Grok does give users another chatbot option to choose from, and more competition in this emerging field could lead to more innovation as companies compete to win over users.