Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI will be integrated into his social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, the tech billionaire announced on 5 November. It will also be available as a standalone app.
The startup xAI has released its first AI model, a bot named Grok, after making it available to all X Premium subscribers on Friday. In a blog post introducing Grok, the xAI team said it's modelled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. According to the post, the bot is designed to answer almost anything and even suggest what questions to ask with “a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak”.
Grok is also designed to access real-time knowledge of the world through its integration with X. “It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems,” the post added.
Musk, who is reportedly not a fan of Google and Microsoft’s AI efforts, launched xAI in July, calling it a "maximum truth-seeking AI" that tries to understand the nature of the universe, a Reuters report said.
Now, with Grok, a primary aim is to design AI tools that are useful to “people of all backgrounds and political views,” the blog post added. The developers’ other aim is for the AI bot to serve as a powerful research assistant, help people quickly access relevant information, process data, and come up with new ideas.
The developers at xAI are also working on equipping Grok with visual and audio senses that can enable broader applications such as real-time interactions and assistance. In their post, the xAI team said that AI holds immense potential for contributing significant scientific and economic value to society.
Last week, at the first global AI Safety Summit, Musk told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak he thought AI was "the most disruptive force in history,” the Reuters report said. He said that AI will make employment as we know it today a thing of the past, Musk speculated: “You can have a job if you want one for personal satisfaction but AI will do everything,” he added. Musk’s statements have raised concerns about job safety in the age of AI.
