Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI will open-source the code for its snarky Grok chatbot “this week,” its billionaire founder said.
The move makes Grok’s source code freely available — and thus in a position to be redistributed and modified — in what’s seen as Musk’s latest jab at rival OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT, the Wall Street Journal earlier reported.
After making the announcement on X within the early hours of Monday, other users chimed in, saying OpenAI should do the identical, to which Musk replied: “OpenAI is a lie.”
One Reddit user surmised in a thread called “r/OpenAI” that ChatGPT continues to be a closed-source application becauase “OpenAI is somewhat concerned in regards to the possible risks related to making ChatGPT…fully open-source.”
Elon Musk shared to X on Monday that “this week, xAI will open source Grok,” meaning the bogus intelligence-powered chatbot’s source code will turn out to be freely available, making it in a position to be redistributed and modified. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
“By keeping the code under wraps, they aim to forestall malicious usage and other unintended consequences that might arise if it were to fall into the unsuitable hands,” the post added.
Musk’s fierce criticism of the Sam Altman-run AI giant has heightened since earlier this month when the Tesla and SpaceX chief sued OpenAI, Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman, alleging that they’ve led the firm to “radically depart from its original mission” by prioritizing profit over humanity.
OpenAI responded in a blog post, saying, “We intend to maneuver to dismiss all of Elon’s claims.”
Musk was a member of OpenAI’s founding team from the inception of its research lab in 2015 until 2018, when he fell out with Altman — reportedly over disagreements with the deal Altman struck with Microsoft, marking a transition away from the corporate’s purely nonprofit roots.
After announcing the subsequent move for Grok — a large-language model that injects sarcasm into its responses — Musk took the chance to lash out at rival OpenAI.
Musk sued OpenAI and its chief Sam Altman earlier this month for diverting from its original mission as a nonprofit entity. Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
He went on to launch his own AI firm, xAI, in July 2023.
Come early November, it unveilied large-language model Grok, which has a novel design intended “to reply questions with a little bit of wit.”
xAI said on the time that the aim of Grok is to “assist humanity in its quest for understanding and knowledge,” and could be available to X’s Premium+ subscribers to do exactly that after a series of beta testing.
The tool was modeled after “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” a comedy science fiction franchise by Douglas Adams that contains a book of the identical name claiming to function “the usual repository of all knowledge and wisdom.”
Altman and Musk co-founded AI, but reportedly had a falling out after Altman struck a take care of Microsoft. Getty Images
After Musk demoed Grok’s injection of sarcasm in its responses with screenshots shared to X, Altman bashed the snarky chatbot’s responses as ridden with “cringey boomer humor.”
Representatives for OpenAI didn’t immediately reply to The Post’s request for comment.
The Post has also sought comment from Musk at X, Tesla and SpaceX.