Elon Musk is making his artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, available to more people than pay a monthly fee for his social media network, X.
In a statement posted on X (formerly known as Twitter), Musk said he intends to make Grok available to all premium subscribers of the social media site who pay $8 a month. Stated. Previously, access to Grok was limited to subscribers who pay $16 a month for X’s Premium Plus subscription, which removes ads from parts of the website. Among other benefits. Musk did not reveal the exact date of release.
The move is the latest way Musk appears to be ramping up competition with AI companies, particularly OpenAI. Mr. Musk has a long history of supporting the technology and warning of its destructive potential.
In February, Musk sued OpenAI, which he originally helped found, for breach of contract. He said in his complaint that OpenAI is intended to be an open source “non-profit research institute that seeks to catch up with Google in the AGI (artificial general intelligence) race,” but that it is would be the opposite. Instead, OpenAI has become one of the most popular AI companies in the world, charging $20 per month for access to an advanced version of its ChatGPT technology.
Meanwhile, Musk has invested heavily in a competing AI called Grok. He said the technology is part of a new initiative announced last year called xAI. Grok is now part of the X social network, which Musk acquired in 2022 for more than $44 billion.
Why is it called Grok?
Grok is an unusual technology, but it’s not just because of its unusual name. The word “Grok” was coined by science fiction author Robert Heinlein, who used the word in his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land, about a human being raised by aliens on Mars and brought back to Earth. It was used. Grok is a Mars term that means understanding something until it becomes a part of you.
What does this have to do with masks? Well, Grok is a popular term among sci-fi fans, computer programmers, and hackers alike, so it’s no wonder he appropriates the term.
What Mask wants from Grok
When he announced Grok in November, Musk positioned the technology as a philosophical rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s CoPilot, Facebook’s LLama, and Google’s Gemini (then called Bard). Musk wrote on X that Grok would be “fun” and “politically neutral” unlike what he called “WokeGPT.”
Musk’s post was in response to political commentators who had begun testing AI chatbots, which are becoming more popular. In testing, commentators say many of these technologies are true about the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the overwhelming evidence that the 2020 U.S. election was conducted legally. I noticed that sometimes I would respond with the following statement.
However, the internet soon learned that Mr. Grok answered the question in a way that Mr. Musk might not approve of.In one example, the user We asked Grok about transgender people., a population that Musk has repeatedly spoken negatively about. (Mr. Musk also has a transgender daughter who has publicly criticized his statements and actions.) Mr. Grok’s response effectively supports the right of transgender people to identify themselves, and Mr. ‘s neutrality upset those who believed it would not support such a position.
Grok was similarly criticized. racist conspiracy theory. The paper also described the word “woke” as “a call to action to stay informed and fight discrimination,” adding that arguments against it are “a ton of BS.”
Within days, Mr. Musk said his team would “take immediate action to move Mr. Grok closer to political neutrality,” although it is unclear how he defines that term.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment on whether Grok is now perceived as “woke.”
mask, grok, x
xAI released Grok’s source code in March and said it plans more releases in the future.
Meanwhile, Musk has discussed planned changes to Grok, including modes such as “Normal.”funIn contrast, Microsoft offers a different set of distinctions: “more creative,” “more accurate,” and “more balanced.”
Musk also said that a “Super Grok” is planned for Premium Plus subscribers. OpenAI and Google have taken a similar approach, limiting access to more advanced AI to subscribers who pay about $20 per month.
