Grok Now Open-Source, Elon Musk Now Based [?]

Absolute Values

​Grok​ is an AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s startup ​xAI​, powered by a custom-built large language model called Grok-1. It was launched in November 2023 as a rival to ​OpenAI’s ChatGPT​ and other AI assistants.

Grok in a Nutshell

• It has a sarcastic and humorous personality, designed to “answer spicy questions rejected by most other AI systems”.
• It has access to real-time data from X (formerly Twitter), giving it an “advantage over other models”.
• In initial tests, xAI claimed Grok outperformed models like ChatGPT-3.5 and Inflection-1 on certain benchmarks.
• Grok is available only to premium X subscribers paying $16 per month.

Elon Musk’s Involvement in OpenAI

Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015 when it launched as a non-profit AI research company. However, he left the company’s board in 2018 after ​disagreements​ over OpenAI’s direction and his proposal to take majority control.

Musk has been critical of OpenAI’s shift towards a for-profit model in partnership with Microsoft, claiming it goes against the company’s original mission of developing open-source AI for the benefit of humanity.

In March 2024, he ​sued​ OpenAI alleging breach of contract.

Announcement of Open-Sourcing Grok

On March 11, 2024, Musk announced that xAI will open-source the Grok language model.

This move is seen as backing his lawsuit against OpenAI by demonstrating a commitment to open-source AI.

Open-sourcing Grok allows developers to access and experiment with the model’s code, similar to other open-source AI projects like Meta’s ​LLaMA​. However, xAI has not provided details on which aspects of Grok will be open-sourced or how it plans to monetize the technology.

Musk’s decision to open-source Grok has been praised by some as aligning with his advocacy for open AI development.

However, critics have pointed out the apparent hypocrisy, as xAI was developing Grok while Musk publicly called for a pause on advanced AI systems in 2023.

Overall, the open-sourcing of Grok represents a new chapter in the growing battle between Musk and OpenAI over the future direction of AI development and commercialization.