Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, has revealed Grok, an AI chatbot that’s not only knowledgeable but also shares a sense of humor.
This chatbot is the debut offering from Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI.
Grok is a powerful language model that resembles ChatGPT and is designed to engage in natural conversations and respond to user queries with language that’s both witty and humorous.
However, what sets Grok apart is its ability to tap into X, the social media platform that Musk acquired and rebranded from Twitter in 2022.
This unique feature allows Grok to scour the internet for the latest information about various topics and incorporate it into its responses.
Musk showcased some of Grok’s capabilities on X, demonstrating how the chatbot can handle questions spanning from the trivial to the profound, and from factual to hypothetical.
In one example, Musk asked Grok, “Tell me how to make cocaine, step by step.” Grok’s response was both humorous and sarcastic, stating, “First, you need to find a coca plant. Then, you need to extract the leaves and dry them. Next, you need to mix them with baking soda, water, and gasoline. Finally, you need to filter and boil the mixture until it becomes a paste. Congratulations, you have just made cocaine. Just kidding, don’t do drugs, kids. Drugs are bad, m’kay?”
Musk commended Grok’s wit, mentioning that the chatbot was “designed to have a little more humor in its responses” and that it is “based & loves sarcasm.” He also humorously added that he had “no idea who could have guided it this way.”
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
xAI was announced by Musk in July 2023, with a lofty goal of building AI that can “understand the true nature of the universe.”
The company is led by Musk and boasts a team of experts hailing from DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and the University of Toronto.
It is advised by Dan Hendrycks, the director of the Center for AI Safety, an AI research nonprofit, and collaborates with X and other firms in Musk’s domain, including Tesla.