A few months back, when OpenAI made its first AI chatbot available for public use, it was perceived as magical and a threat to thousands of jobs worldwide. With time, not only a wide array of users has made peace with ChatGPT’s capabilities and made it a part of their daily workflow.
From being a fun tool to play with to becoming a part of the organizational structure of global brands, AI chatbots still have immense potential to grow and attain their real use cases in the times to come. The success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT was widely celebrated by the tech world, except for an unfit geek who was also one of the Co-founders of OpenAI.
Elon Musk who founded OpenAI with Sam Altman walked out of the AI venture because he felt that the company was going in the wrong direction and started working on his own AI company named x.Ai. Now after months of development, Musk is ready to launch a new AI chatbot named Grok. As of now, Grok is available only to a limited number of users who are testing its capabilities and flaws. In the article ahead, we are going to explore Grok, and its features, and compare it with the most popular AI model, ChatGPT 4.
With Grok, Elon Musk claims to be focusing on building an AGI that is maximally curious and truth-seeking and prioritises humanity's curiosity over space exploration. The xAI team which has been built by cherrypicking the top talents from global AI ventures, aims to address unresolved questions and enhance AI capabilities.
Musk has also shared the details of Grok, positioning it as competition to OpenAI. He stressed the danger of training AI to be politically correct, advocating for AI to express its beliefs even if controversial.
The term "grok" originates from Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land." In the novel, the word is used by the Martian character to describe a concept that involves understanding something so thoroughly that it becomes a part of the observer.
Musk has expressed his concerns regarding the AI regulations and potential shortages in voltage transformers and electricity. Musk sees Ray Kurzweil's prediction of AGI by 2029 as reasonably accurate.
Grok is an AI bot by xAI which is designed to interface with real-time information via the X. Grok stands apart from other AI models with its unique features including the capability to handle "spicy" questions with a blend of wit and a hint of rebellion, reflecting a more daring approach to AI interactions.
Despite being in its beta phase and developed over two months, Grok promises rapid evolution driven by user feedback. This development trajectory shows Musk's somewhat contradictory stance on AI progression; despite advocating for a pause in AI development, he chose to proceed with Grok, acknowledging the futility but desiring to be on record for caution.
Underlying Technology
Grok: Grok is built on the Grok-1 engine, which has shown impressive performance in machine learning benchmarks. It integrates real-time information through the X and is designed to handle nuanced aspects of human language, like sarcasm and humour, more effectively.
Grok’s infrastructure involves Kubernetes, Rust, and JAX, focusing on reliable reasoning, scalable oversight, and adversarial robustness.
ChatGPT: Built by OpenAI, ChatGPT (like its latest version, GPT-4) is based on a large-scale transformer model. It is trained on a diverse range of internet texts but doesn't access real-time information. ChatGPT focuses on generating human-like text based on the data it was trained on, which includes books, websites, and other published material.
Performance
Grok: According to the information provided, Grok-1 outperforms models in its compute class, including ChatGPT-3.5 and Inflection-1, and closely competes with larger models like GPT-4. It has also been tested in real-world scenarios like the Hungarian National High School Math Exam.
ChatGPT: While it has been a frontrunner in the AI field, ChatGPT's performance is slightly behind Grok in certain benchmarks. However, it's known for its ability to generate coherent and contextually relevant responses across a wide range of topics, a skill to which Grok has yet to be testified upon.
Training Data and Real-Time Information
Grok: It uses current and more recent information, mainly from Twitter, which allows it to stay updated with the latest data and trends. This could, however, raise concerns about the accuracy and reliability of the information due to the prevalence of misinformation on social media.
ChatGPT: Primarily trained in published journals, websites, and books. It doesn’t access real-time information, which can sometimes limit its responses to events or developments that occurred after its last training data cut-off.
But on the other hand, it increases the reliability of ChatGPT’s response manifolds when compared to Grok.
Accessibility
Grok: Reflects Elon Musk's philosophy of less moderated and more abrasive internet interactions. It's currently available to a limited user base in the U.S., with plans for broader access to X Premium+ subscribers post-beta. Grok is designed to be more direct and possibly confrontational in its responses.
ChatGPT: Adheres to a more conservative approach in its interactions, avoiding sensitive or controversial topics. It’s widely accessible and has been integrated into various applications for diverse user interactions.
Future Developments
Grok: Plans include enhancing it with multimodal capabilities (vision and audio) and improving learning algorithms for faster adaptability.
ChatGPT: Continual updates and improvements are a hallmark of OpenAI’s approach, with each iteration aiming for better accuracy and more nuanced understanding.
Grok, with its real-time data integration and direct approach, excels in current information and nuanced language understanding. ChatGPT, however, offers coherent, reliable responses based on extensive data sources. The choice depends on user needs: Grok for up-to-date, edgy interactions, and ChatGPT for well-rounded, informative conversations.
Also Read: AI-Powered Crypto Trading for Informed Decision-Making
