X owner Elon Musk has announced a plan to make Grok, the AI assistant that he launched in July, a part of X Premium+, urging users to sign up.
Early Friday, Musk announced that xAI would unveil Grok to a “select group” on Saturday, November 4. However, in a subsequent tweet later in the evening, Musk clarified that all subscribers to X’s newly launched Premium Plus plan, which is priced at $16 per month and offers ad-free access to X, would gain access to Grok “once it transitions out of the early beta stage.”
The @xAI Grok AI assistant will be provided as part of ? Premium+, so I recommend signing up for that.
Just $16/month via web. https://t.co/wEEIZNjEkp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
The Tesla CEO, who has been critical of OpenAI over ChatGPT, which he said was not developed as planned – created Grok as an alternative. Musk who accused ChatGPT of going woke among other things, has a plan to incorporate Grok into X as part of his plan to make the social media platform ‘everything app.’
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The new AI model has recently been trademarked, and it promises to take conversational AI to the next level. Much like ChatGPT and similar text-generating models, Grok is designed to answer questions conversationally. It taps into a knowledge base similar to the one used to train ChatGPT, which provides it with a wide range of information to draw from when responding to queries.
What sets Grok apart is its emphasis on “real-time access” to information. Musk has indicated that the model has the ability to access and retrieve up-to-date information on various topics. This real-time information retrieval capability is a significant step forward, as it ensures that Grok can provide accurate and current responses to user queries.
Additionally, Grok shares another feature with models like ChatGPT – internet browsing capabilities. This enables the AI to browse the web, just like a human, in order to search for and fetch the most recent and relevant information.
In a series of posts on Saturday, Musk shared some capabilities of Grok, which differentiate it from other AI models, particularly ChatGPT.
xAI’s Grok system is designed to have a little humor in its responses pic.twitter.com/WqXxlwI6ef
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
Musk suggested that Grok might decline to respond to certain inquiries of a more sensitive nature, such as requesting a step-by-step guide on making cocaine. Based on a screenshot, the model’s response to that specific question appears to be somewhat more playful or tongue-in-cheek compared to ChatGPT’s responses. It remains uncertain whether this response is a pre-programmed canned answer or if the system is genuinely, as Musk claims in a tweet, “designed to inject a bit more humor into its responses.”
Grok has real-time access to info via the ? platform, which is a massive advantage over other models.
It’s also based & loves sarcasm. I have no idea who could have guided it this way ???? ? pic.twitter.com/e5OwuGvZ3Z
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
This capability is crucial in a rapidly evolving world where information is constantly changing. It ensures that Grok remains at the cutting edge of knowledge, making it a valuable tool for staying informed about the latest developments in various fields.
The introduction of Grok into the AI landscape is likely to have far-reaching implications, not only for enhancing conversational AI but also for providing accurate, up-to-date information on a wide range of subjects. As technology continues to advance, AI models like Grok are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in natural language understanding and information retrieval.
Though its rollout is expected to disrupt the AI status quo, there is not much known about the AI model now.
In September, Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and a self-proclaimed close friend of Musk, disclosed that xAI had entered into a contract to train its AI models on Oracle’s cloud platform. However, xAI itself has not revealed any specifics about the inner workings of its AI models or the specific tasks they have been designed to accomplish.
Elon Musk first introduced xAI in July, accompanied by the grand vision of creating AI that could “understand the true nature of the universe.” The company, under Musk’s leadership and with a team comprised of experts from prominent organizations like DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and the University of Toronto, has been advised by Dan Hendrycks, the director at the Center for AI Safety, an AI research nonprofit.
Additionally, xAI has formed collaborations with other companies within Musk’s expansive portfolio, including Tesla.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson in April, Musk expressed his desire to build a “maximum-truth-seeking AI.” The question that arises now is whether Grok, Musk’s recently trademarked AI model, is a realization of this aspiration or merely a stepping stone towards a more profound AI endeavor.
Elon Musk predicted that human work will become obsolete as artificial intelligence progresses, calling it “the most disruptive force in history.” Speaking with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak late Thursday, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, social media platform X and the newly formed AI startup xAI said “there will come a point where no job is needed” as AI does everything. It came just after world leaders at the AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park signed a global declaration on the risks AI poses, with even the U.S. and China agreeing to seek consensus on its development. Instagram is currently working on an “AI friend” that users can customize, from ethnicity to personality.