Musk claims his latest AI chatbot possesses a touch of humor

Elon Musk has introduced an AI chatbot called Grok on his social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. However, at the moment, it is only accessible to a select group of users. Musk praised Grok's capabilities, stating that it is currently the best AI chatbot available. He mentioned that Grok has a fondness for sarcasm and would respond to questions with a touch of humor. Despite Musk's claims, early indications suggest that Grok suffers from typical issues encountered by other AI tools. Some models refuse to answer certain questions, such as providing advice on illegal activities. However, Musk assured that Grok would respond to "spicy questions" rejected by most other AI systems. During a demonstration, Grok was asked for a detailed guide to making cocaine. In a sarcastic response, it expressed its willingness to help but provided generalized and unhelpful information while advising against pursuing the idea. The chatbot also made an error in referencing the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, a crypto-entrepreneur, by incorrectly stating the duration it took for the jury to deliver a guilty verdict. While Grok falls within the category of generative AI tools, which have faced criticism for making basic errors despite sounding convincingly human-like, it should be noted that the team behind Grok xAI was launched in July and leveraged talent from other AI research firms. Although it operates as a separate company, it maintains close ties with Musk's other ventures, X and Tesla. Earlier, Musk expressed his desire for his version of AI to be a "maximum truth-seeking AI" aiming to understand the universe. One of the advantages of Grok, according to Musk, is its access to real-time information from the X platform, distinguishing it from other AI tools whose initial versions lack up-to-date responses. However, paying customers of other AI tools are also gaining access to increasingly current information. Currently, Grok is in a beta phase but will eventually be available to paying subscribers of X. Musk acknowledged the potential risks associated with AI development while speaking at the UK's AI Summit. Nevertheless, he has long been a proponent of the technology and co-founded OpenAI, the organization that developed ChatGPT, the first widely accessible AI tool. OpenAI's collaboration with Microsoft has made the tool available on its platform. Grok's name is derived from Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land," where "grokking" referred to deeply empathizing with others. However, xAI, the company behind Grok, stated that it was modeled after "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams, aiming to provide answers to nearly any question while even suggesting what questions to ask. xAI described Grok as a "very early beta product" resulting from two months of training.