Grok AI

About

Grok is an artificial intelligence large language model created by XAI, a company part of X / Twitter that was founded by Elon Musk in March 2023. It was officially released in early November 2023 as a competitor to prominent AIs like ChatGPT and Google's Bard. The AI garnered notable virality online upon release, particularly due to Grok's perceived ability to be more unfiltered and uncensored than existing AI models.

History

The word "grok" is a slang term meaning "to understand" or "grasp intuitively." It was coined in Robert Heinlein's 1961 science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, which Elon Musk referenced in an early November post on X prior to Grok's release.^[1]

On November 5th, 2023, the Grok AI, in an interface similar to ChatGPT, was officially released to X Premium subscribers.

Features

Grok AI claims to differ from competitors like ChatGPT and Google Bard because it draws on real-time information (sourced from the X platform)^[6] and is programmed to be "funny," as noted in a November 7th, 2023, post by Elon Musk on X^[7] in which he said "We worked hard to ensure Grok was funny. If AI is going to take over, please let it at least make us laugh."

In an announcement post on November 5th, the official @xai^[2] account described Grok as drawing from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (seen below).

The AI also seems to be comfortable using some profanity and even sharing political views, which some have noted are purportedly more right-leaning than other artificial intelligence models.^[8] Musk, teasing the November 5th announcement of the AI two days before, posted a screenshot on November 3rd demonstrating some of its humor, receiving over 153,000 likes in two days (seen below).^[3]

Online Reactions

As of early November 2023, the use of Grok was limited to X Premium subscribers, a relatively small group of people according to reports on the total amount, which place it around 800,000.^[9] However, news coverage among outlets like Wired and Axios focused on the political side of Grok, arguing that the decision to program a non-politically correct artificial intelligence opened a new kind of partisan lane for the product to compete in.^[4]

On X, some posters shared screenshots of conversations with Grok and praised the model upon its release. For example, X user @battleangelviv (seen below) earned almost 4,000 likes for sharing Grok's response to the scooped bagel online controversy on November 5th, receiving over 3,800 likes in two days.^[5]

Others criticized Musk as they perceived him reversing his position on AI, which he had previously said should slow down when he signed a letter calling for a pause to AI development earlier in 2023.

External References