On Monday, in a post on X, billionaire Elon Musk announced, “This week, @xAI will open source Grok.”
This declaration comes amid Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, where he alleges that the ChatGPT creator has breached their contract. Musk claims that OpenAI, known for creating the world's most renowned generative AI, violated their "Founding Agreement" by, among other reasons, not being open-source. Musk, who left the company's board in 2018, has seen OpenAI express their intention to dismiss all his claims in response to the lawsuit.
Musk founded xAI in 2023 with the ambition of developing an AI that “tries to understand the nature of the universe,” according to the Independent.
Initially, his aim was to develop a ChatGPT rival named TruthGPT, which aimed to counter what Musk perceived as a “politically correct” bias in AI. This AI chatbot was later renamed Grok.
Grok was launched into beta testing in November 2023, with early access restricted to X’s Premium+ subscribers as of March 13, 2024.
The chatbot is inspired by Douglas Adams’ comedic science fiction The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, featuring two modes: a default “Fun Mode” and a “Regular Mode.”
In its default mode, Grok adopts a sarcastic, joking tone, which Musk describes as “based” in a post on X. However, The Verge has expressed skepticism towards what they refer to as the bot's “Cards-Against-Humanity-ass answers.”
Moreover, Musk’s AI chatbot has been criticized, like its competitors, for spreading misinformation. Despite xAI's stated goal of aiding humanity in its “quest for understanding and knowledge,” and Musk's emphasis on Grok's access to “real-time info,” Vice reports that the bot is rife with misinformation, particularly in its default Fun Mode.