Elon Musk Said xAI chatbot Grok is going to be open-source

On Monday, the X owner Elon Musk announced his AI startup backed xAI Grok is moving towards open source. The service was announced last December for the premium members of X.

Musk was always against the idea of using any technology to drive toward profit instead of exploration, in the past he vocalized his concerns about mega organizations such as Google, Microsoft, and Twitter and their handling of the tech in the world. 

The news about Grok becoming open-source comes days after Musk sued OpenAI for leaving out the original vision for a profit-driven model. Some may not be aware that Musk was an original co-founder of Open AI in 2015.

Musk revealed the open-source model for xAI on X by tweeting this –

What does Grok going open-source mean for the industry?

Grok going open-source leaves more power in the hands of people, it will give the public free access to tinker with the Grok model. Open source allows the code behind the system to be experimented with by everyone.

AI models going open-source is not a new idea in the tech world, if you have been following AI news in recent weeks, you will find plenty of companies have made a move towards open-source. 

Firms such as Mistral, Meta, and many others have gone open-source AI instead of locking it in.

Even Google’s AI model Gemma is open to developers to experiment and tinker with the system. A handful of other tech investors have shown their concern about moving towards open source.

What do skeptics say about open-source xAI Grok ?

The move towards open-source AI models is a better approach to innovation since the power will be in the hands of people. However, AI skeptics have written extensively about their concern about the open-source direction for AI tech, as they think the tech will land in the hands of the wrong people in the world.

It could get into the hands of nefarious groups, as they might create chemical weapons or a machine that can be difficult to put a leash on. Musk is also one of the people who was aware of the AI revolution and the damage it could bring to the world.

In Britain’s AI safety, he put more emphasis on the establishment of a Third-parry-referee, whose job would be to oversee the development of AI and notify if they see anything wrong happening during the process.

Since security behind the AI model can be difficult to get down, leaving it in the hands of people or any third-party establishment might help point out the problem at the right time.

Elon Musk supported the existence of Grok to counter the success of OpenAI or Google, it was designed to act as an alternative to what the mega-tech industry has to offer to the public. Last year Musk described the Grok as a Maximum Truth-seeking AI.

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