11-3-2024 (SAN FRANCISCO) Elon Musk announced on Monday that his AI company, xAI, will open-source its chatbot “Grok” this week, positioning it as a potential rival to OpenAI’s widely popular ChatGPT.
The announcement comes amidst growing tension between Musk and OpenAI, the company he co-founded but later parted ways with. Earlier this month, the billionaire entrepreneur sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, accusing them of abandoning the startup’s original mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity in favor of profit-driven motives.
During a podcast episode with computer scientist Lex Fridman in November, Musk expressed his preference for open-source AI, aligning with his belief in the democratization of technology. It was during this conversation that he first hinted at the launch of Grok, describing it as a “maximum truth-seeking AI.”
Grok, which was initially released to a small group of users in November, aims to create an AI system that prioritizes truth and objectivity. The chatbot has since been made available to Premium+ subscribers of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, allowing Musk to gather feedback and refine the technology.
