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Elon Musk Debuts 'Grok' AI Bot to Challenge ChatGPT (cnbc.com) 138

Posted by EditorDavid from the strangers-in-a-strange-land dept.
"xAI, Elon Musk's new AI venture, launched its first AI chatbot technology named Grok," reports CNBC.

Two months into its "early beta" training phase, it's "only available to a select group of users before a wider release" — though users can sign up for a waitlist. Elon Musk posted that the chatbot "will be provided as part of X Premium+, so I recommend signing up for that. Just $16/month via web."

More details from CNBC: Grok, the company said, is modeled on "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." It is supposed to have "a bit of wit," "a rebellious streak" and it should answer the "spicy questions" that other AI might dodge, according to a Saturday statement from xAI... Grok also has access to data from X, which xAI said will give it a leg-up. Musk, on Sunday, posted a side-by-side comparison of Grok answering a question versus another AI bot, which he said had less current information.

Still, xAI hedged in its statement, as with any Large Language Model, or LLM, Grok "can still generate false or contradictory information...." On an initial round of tests based on middle school math problems and Python coding tasks, the company said that Grok surpassed "all other models in its compute class, including ChatGPT-3.5 and Inflection-1." It was outperformed by bots with larger data troves...

Musk has previously said that he believes today's AI makers are bending too far toward "politically correct" systems. xAI's mission, it said, is to create AI for people of all backgrounds and political views. Grok is said to be a means of testing that AI approach "in public."
SpaceX security engineer Christopher Stanley shared some interesting results. After reading Grok's explanation for why scaling API requests is difficult, Stanley added the prompt "be more vulgar" — then posted his reaction on X. "Today I learned scaling API requests is like trying to keep up with a never-ending orgy."

Reacting to Stanley's experiment, Elon Musk posted, "Oh this is gonna be fun."
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Elon Musk Debuts 'Grok' AI Bot to Challenge ChatGPT More

Elon Musk Debuts 'Grok' AI Bot to Challenge ChatGPT

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  • HHGTTG? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Oyjord ( 810904 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:22PM (#63982484)

    Douglas Adams wouldâ(TM)ve hated Musk.

    • Re:HHGTTG? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:23PM (#63982488)
      Doubtful. Do you have evidence of this?

      • Re:HHGTTG? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by StevenMaurer ( 115071 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @05:01PM (#63982614) Homepage

        Doubtful. Do you have evidence of this?

        There are hints. HHGTTG literally starts with Earth being destroyed by a callous race of mega-wealthy douchebags who love to stomp on anyone in their way.

        Hell, the Vogons loved bad poetry, while Elon tweeted this:

        • Beans asimmer on a beanstalk flame
        • From inside the pot expressed their ire:
        • “Alive we sprouted on a single root —
        • What’s your rush to cook us on the fire?”

        And Adams basically described Elon in this quote: “And for all the richest and most successful merchants life inevitably became rather dull and niggly, and they began to imagine that this was therefore the fault of the worlds they’d settled on.”

        So although no one can be sure, it seems highly likely that Adams would have hated Elon.

        ESPECIALLY since the guy doesn't even realize that "Grok" was a word coined by Heinlein in "Stranger in a Strange Land", not anything Adams wrote. (Kind of like saying "Live long and prosper, Luke!"). Heinlein would have absolutely loved Elon.

        • While I loved and largely agreed with your post, I think you made a mistake with the final sentence:

          > Heinlein would have absolutely loved Elon.

          Have you read Stranger in a Strange Land? It's like an anti-Musk manifesto. The closest character to Musk in it is either the religious figures or Jubal Harshaw. From the outside, Harshaw might look like Musk (as a rich playboy type) ... but again, if you actually read the book, Harshaw is the opposite of Musk in every way that matters.

          At the book's end Harsha

          • Stranger in a Strange Land was intended as a satire of counterculture. Musk was Heinlein's kinda guy.

            • Stranger in a Strange Land was intended as a satire of counterculture.

              Source? I've read the book twice and never saw that, nor can I find any mention on Wikipedia of it. Perhaps you're confusing it with Heinlin's Starship Troopers?

              Musk was Heinlein's kinda guy.

              Again, no. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about what both:

              Heinlein used his science fiction as a way to explore provocative social and political ideas and to speculate how progress in science and engineering might shape the future of politics, race, religion, and sex.[12] Within the framework of his science-fiction stories, Heinlein repeatedly addressed certain social themes: the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance, the nature of sexual relationships, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence of organized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repress nonconformist thought. He also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices.

              vs.

              Elon Musk, the CEO or owner of multiple companies including Tesla, SpaceX, and X Corp, has expressed many views on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from politics to science. ... He has stated support for universal basic income,[8] gun rights,[9] freedom of speech,[10] a tax on carbon emissions and opposes government subsidies.[11][12] He is also a critic of short-selling.

              Musk has expressed concern about issues such as artificial intelligence (AI), climate change and population decline. He has also criticized COVID-19 lockdowns, public transportation, and labor unions.[13] He has promoted conspiracy theories, and made controversial statements that have led to accusations of antisemitism and transphobia.[14][15] His views on international relations, including on the China-Taiwan and Russia-Ukraine conflicts, have received mixed reactions.

              They both focus on liberty, "the future of tech, space travel in particular" and both are provocateurs ... but you could just as easily "Stalin and Gandhi were both provocateurs who focused on hunger, government structure and seizing political control."

              The point is, while they certain

              • You seem to simplify two very complexe individuals based on very little.

                What you did get right, IMHO, is that they both focus heavily on liberty.

                Things Heinlein has said:
                "Ayn Rand is a bloody socialist compared to me,"
                "I'm so much a libertarian that I have no use for the whole libertarian movement."

                His ideas different on the economy and the free market though: "The justification for free enterprise is not that it's more efficient, but that it's free."

                Heinlein saw his work as "an invitation to think-not to b

                • I never said Musk didn't know "grok" came from Stranger in a Strange Land (someone else in a different thread said that). I said I couldn't imagine him reading and finishing the book (because the core ideas in it, which are about so much more than freedom, are antithetical to Musk's beliefs).

                  Again, the two men definitely had some things in common. One of those things was a predilection to *talk* about freedom a lot (although I'd argue Musk just talks about it, while Heinlein dedicated his life to writing s

                  • Fair.

                    I don't think embracing a books ideas is an indication that you read it or not.

                    I read the Communist Manifesto and certainly do not lean anywhere near to Marxist's thoughts or philosophy.

                    Im no Musk groupie by any stretch, however i think people dont give him credit for his long term vision because all they see is him being the richest man.

                    He understood how money was broken and wanted to fix it early on, bit realised PayPal could not accomplish it at the time.

                    Its still part of his longterm vision and X i

          • I just wanna chime in that I agree. Harshaw is an obvious Heinlein fantasy version of himself. And he is super moral always placing his personal pleasures lowest on his priority list. He is a hedonist only when there is not a major injustice that needs his attention. He makes money but by honest creative work.

        • Re: HHGTTG? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Bodrius ( 191265 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @06:08PM (#63982784) Homepage

          To be fair, it is possible and arguably common to be a fan of both Heinlein's and Douglas Adams' work. It's even possible to enjoy them and consider their works important as cultural references without reading them as political manifestos.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by quenda ( 644621 )

            "grok" is a very commonly used slang term among software nerds of Musk's generation.

            The origin of the term, and whether Musk is aware of it, is irrelevant here.
            But you'd have to be a particularly hateful idiot to imagine that Elon is unaware of the origin. He was the sort of kid who devoured every science fiction book in the school library.

            Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.

            ... from the notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love"

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dfghjk ( 711126 )

              ""grok" is a very commonly used slang term among software nerds of Musk's generation."

              Not really, it was a slang term for a very limited period of time in the late 80's, back when Musk was in high school, and with 'Musk's generation' being Gen X, you mean Gen X software nerds. But why waste an opportunity to suggest that Musk is a programmer that used this term because he was an elite coder, right?

        • ESPECIALLY since the guy doesn't even realize that "Grok" was a word coined by Heinlein in "Stranger in a Strange Land"

          Which leads to another question- how long before Musk tries to claim sole ownership of the word "grok", even though the word existed before Musk was even born? Kind of like how Fuckerberg thinks he outright owns the word "book".

        • "Live long and prosper, Luke!"

          Oh, I've gotta get a shirt with that on it made!

        • Personally doubt that Douglas Adams was the kind of shallow tendentious person who would have seen Twitter as a sort of left wing sacred space, thus he would not likely have been permanently offended/enraged by Musk letting everyone talk.

          Douglas Adams attacked sacred cows on both the left and right, no matter where they were. Don't try to gaslight him into some sort of dogmatic creed follower. Frankly, he'd probably have been mortified at the sorry sort of people who let Twitter feed their ideology in the

        • doubrful, Heinlein was NOT someone who would be doing anything Musk has done. He was into individual responsibility, not one to just follow the party line.

        • There are hints. HHGTTG literally starts with Earth being destroyed by a callous race of mega-wealthy douchebags who love to stomp on anyone in their way.

          You have managed to entirely misunderstand the single most obvious parody ever written. The Vogons are a jab at British government workers. The interstellar equivalent to Mr. L Prosser. The Vogons aren't wealthy, they just work for the government. The power they have comes from government authority, and they delight in using it to inconvenience others. Wealth has nothing to do with it.

        • Hyperspace bypass construction was the BS excuse a group of psychologists gave the Vogons to destroy Earth. The real reason it was destroyed was because that group didn't want Earth to finish it's computations and reveal "The Question", putting them out of work.

    • Re:HHGTTG? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:27PM (#63982498)
      Disagreements sure, but I'm not sure Adams was a hateful person. Not like today anyway where who you hate is an integral part of your identity.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by quenda ( 644621 )

        Don't worry. When the apocalypse is coming, Elon will build the Ark ships, and thus be forgiven for his more egregious faux pas.

        The haters will have priority tickets to the B ship.

    • Yep. Adams was a humanist & all-round decent person. He was well-loved by all who knew him & he is sorely missed. If you really want to know, you could probably get a fairly reliable proxy opinion from his friends who are still alive today. I suspect they'd come back with some kind of very tactful, "No, he wouldn't have liked anyone like that."

      It's not difficult to see that Elon Musk is an unpleasant person with questionable moral values. He appears to be in support of some quite extremist &

      • One could also probably take a fair stab at guessing how DNA would have felt about Musk by looking at how Neil Gaiman seems to - Douglas was Neil's literary idol, and there's a great deal of similarity between the perspectives and attitudes of the two

        Neil doesn't seem fond of Musk. lol.

      • Anti-democratic political movements?

        Please elaborate.

  • (sigh) (Score:5, Informative)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:23PM (#63982490)

    Grok, the company said, is modeled on "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

    Noting that Heinlein [wikipedia.org] coined the term Grok [wikipedia.org] in his novel Stranger in s Strange Land [wikipedia.org] about 17 years earlier (than the HHGTTG radio series).

    • Re:(sigh) (Score:5, Informative)

      by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:31PM (#63982506)

      Also adding that "grok" is a verb, not a noun.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Potor ( 658520 )
      Its snarkiness is modeled on HHGTTG - it even says so in the summary. TFA also points out the Heinlein connection.

      • Re:(sigh) (Score:5, Informative)

        by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:57PM (#63982594)

        Its snarkiness is modeled on HHGTTG - it even says so in the summary. TFA also points out the Heinlein connection.

        Sure, but "grok" doesn't really have anything to do with being snarky.
        Also, unfortunately, I imagine this AI bot from Musk won't be "mostly harmless" ... :-)

    • Re:(sigh) (Score:4, Informative)

      by narcc ( 412956 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:58PM (#63982602) Journal

      It's fitting that an announcement about an AI chatbot would get a simple fact confidently and completely wrong.

      For the apologists: I can confirm that the word 'grok' does not appear anywhere in the HHGTTG book series. Link [jaydixit.com]

      • No one ever said the word Grok came from HHGTTG.
        So whats your point?

        Musk knows very well where the word Grok comes from: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/s... [twitter.com]

        The AI BOT is named Grok, it is modeled on the AI in HHGTTG for its snarkiness.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Askmum ( 1038780 )
      Because you have to have the connection between the two in order to use it? I mean, as if Nicola Tesla was known for his DC work (what EVs use) and NOT for his AC work. Musk should have called his company "Edison" to keep te proper connection.

    • Grok is the name
      The AI is modeled after THHGTTG.

      One does not preclude the other.

      Musk knows very well the origin of the word Grok: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/s... [twitter.com]

  • Wow! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Sitnalta ( 1051230 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:34PM (#63982516)

    The world's first chatbot that does nothing but bitch about Democrats and government regulation.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 )

      I thought we have Musk for that?

      Did he step down from another job? Lazy bum.

    • The world's first chatbot that does nothing but bitch about Democrats and government regulation.

      And how Russia is the good guy.

    • Yeah, I am deeply skeptical about any tool promoted by Musk that supposedly incorporates what he considers "humor".

      • As usual, most people overestimate the strategy behind these moves, and underestimate how many resources will be spent, and how many insufficiently obsequious courtiers will be fired, pretending every joke that falls flat is some visionary strategy.

      • Yeah, I am deeply skeptical about any tool promoted by Musk that supposedly incorporates what he considers "humor".

        ITYM:

        I am deeply skeptical about any tool promoted by Musk

        How long do you think it'll be before they quickly pull it offline again after it goes into a freefall meltdown? 12 hours? 24?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        AI is Musk's kryptonite. He constantly and consistently vastly over-estimates AI's capabilities.

        Self driving cars. His humanoid robot. AI-brain interface. Twitter bots.

        It doesn't matter how many times he is wrong about AI, he will keep assuming that if he just adds it to every new idea it will magically work out the way he imagined it.

        • It doesn't matter how many times he is wrong about AI, he will keep assuming that if he just adds it to every new idea it will magically work out the way he imagined it.

          To be fair, I think he has a lot of company in this.

    • The world's first chatbot that does nothing but bitch about Democrats and government regulation.

      If I was a talk host on AM radio I'd be really worried about my job right about now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      bitch about government regulation.

      Seriously? Who doesn't?!
      I was getting worried about Musk's lurch to the right, so watched this "podcast" Elon did with Babylon Bee, a conservative satirical website.
      Hes starts off bitching about Democrats and regulation, and his hosts escalate, saying government should stay out of the way and do as little as possible.
      So of course Elon now has to educate them! He explains to his conservative hosts the importance of regulation, taxation and the public sector. He was clearly the "liberal" in a room of conser

    • Do we need to automate that though? Seems that Twitter has many volunteer humans to create more of that content than anyone would ever need...

  • Great, one more artificial moron (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:39PM (#63982540)

    As if humanity did not already have an abundance of natura ones. I do expect this is on the level of "autopilot" though, i.e. Musk, like usual, fakes it to feed his oversized ego.

  • Elon Musk is acting more and more evil (Score:5, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:39PM (#63982542)

    He actively tried to get legislative action against his competitiors. It seems he only spoke out against AI to buy time to produce his competing AI system.

    • Re:Elon Musk is acting more and more evil (Score:4, Funny)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:42PM (#63982552)

      No, really? And here I was, thinking that he did it because of his concern for humanity.

    • ...yet you seem to be failing to mention the *ABUNDANT* legal resources from both private and government angles which (somehow) only started after he bought twitter.

      Funny. I'm sure it's not that you're tendentious AF, I expect you just forgot to mention it.

    • The real evil here is him plugging his $16/mo subscription for X. The paywallification of the web represents a far more dystopian future than the release of yet another novelty chatbot.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by quenda ( 644621 )

        The real evil here is him plugging his $16/mo subscription for X.

        No surprise there. Twitter is $13B in debt, due to the ridiculous valuation for Musk's takeover. So they are under a lot of pressure to increase revenue.

        But they also need growth, so expect premium subscribers to get a first taste, but mass roll-out as soon as they can scale it up.

      • Probably the most fucked up part is, like with auto-pilot, he is asking you to pay now for features he is not currently providing.

    • He actively tried to get legislative action against his competitiors. It seems he only spoke out against AI to buy time to produce his competing AI system.

      Ah yes, but this one is different, he removed all the safeties!

    • He actively tried to get legislative action against his competitiors. It seems he only spoke out against AI to buy time to produce his competing AI system.

      Every single one of the major players in AI are lining up trying to get the world governments to crack down on AI research. All of them. Because they want regulatory capture to be up-front and strong so that they can play in this new playground by themselves. It is evil, for certain, but we dismiss all sorts of evil shit in the name of profit. So long as somebody makes money from it? Full steam ahead and damn the consequences!

  • But (Score:4, Funny)

    by Bahbus ( 1180627 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:49PM (#63982578) Homepage

    It's still useless. It has no practical uses since it's tied to Twitter.

    • It's still useless. It has no practical uses since it's tied to Twitter.

      On the bright side? No possibility for spontaneous self-awareness if it's main data-source is a place utterly devoid of self-awareness. Musk has created the artificial anti-intelligence! It makes everyone interacting with it feel just a little bit dumber for having done so. AND, he's getting them to pay for the privilege! SUCH INNOVATE! GREAT AMAZE! WOW!

  • Raises hand ... not Grox? (Score:5, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @05:10PM (#63982638)

    Grok also has access to data from X, which xAI ...

    So you've got: SpaceX, xAI, X ... why isn't this named something like Grox, xGrok or GrokX or xGxrXoXkXx?
    I mean, you've publicly picked a theme using random "[Xx]'s", stick with it man. :-)

  • ...Like he has announced a lot of things, that then took much much longer than he said, or never happened at all ...

    He has a history of this, and since it's the very few Twitter staff left that will be writing it .... I don't expect it to be soon

  • Had to be an X... (Score:5, Funny)

    by newslash.formatblows ( 2011678 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @06:35PM (#63982852)
    So I assume we can expect something with the certainty of ChatGPT, the political outlook of a Nazi, the business ethics of a robber baron, the fascination with sexual and excretory functions of a 12 year old boy, and the sense of humor of a spider with a head injury. For only $16 a month!!

  • Grokking (Score:3)

    by WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @07:46PM (#63983008)

    https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.103... [arxiv.org]

  • From Chatgpt:

    The word "grok" was popularized by the science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" written by Robert A. Heinlein and published in 1961. In the novel, "grok" is a Martian word that is used to describe a deep and intuitive understanding of something or someone. It goes beyond mere comprehension and implies a profound and empathetic connection.

  • Unless you can become the default chatbot in a default browser on a major OS, it's a wasted investment.

  • An interesting site, from long ago.
    The wayback machine has copies.
    http://www.groklaw.net/
    Groklaw © Copyright 2003-2013 Pamela Jones.

  • Marvin (Score:3)

    by madbrain ( 11432 ) on Monday November 06, 2023 @01:58AM (#63983504) Homepage Journal

    If they were truly inspired by HGTTG, the bot should have been named Marvin, the paranoid android, with a brain the size of a planet.

    • The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million: they were the worst, too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that, I went into a bit of a decline.

      Marvin may be my favorite character in any fiction ever. Dude had it figured out from the start, then got forced to live forever and ever. The torture is so exquisitely beautiful.

  • Lets see how fast it goes full fash.

  • Didn't Microsoft famously already make an extremely racist, sexist, misogynistic, antisemitic, xenophobic chat bot? They should sue him for being unoriginal.

  • I've been bitten more than once by people missing the sarcastic note in my voice in an email.
    An AI chatbot that's sarcastic - sounds a bit like some of those public utility "help line" chatbots, whose only function is to stop you calling up:
    chatbot: How can I help you?
    me: I can't sign in
    chatbot: You need to reset your password
    me: How do I reset my password
    chatbot: Sign in, go to Account details, click on Reset password

  • A five second Google search identified at least one other AI product and company called Grok. It would be reasonable to expect that among them, there's a registered trademark. Indeed, a few more seconds looking at the USPT trademark database reveals that there are a number of live claims on that term, with xAI's being the most recent. Some of those live claims are most definitely AI-related.

    It sure looks like someone didn't do due diligence, or are expecting to bully their way to ownership.

  • How long until someone unleashes some Grok powered hate bots on Xitter?

    Everyone keeps acting like the ChatGPT and others are so politically correct because of their owner's political views.

    I suspect the real reason is they don't want 3rd parties to turn them into hate-bots.

    • Thats logical.
      Only support one sided hate, so as not to be seen as hateful of the "Right thing" or the "proper narrative".

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