Elon Musk, the CEO of xAI, announced on Monday the open-sourcing of the artificial intelligence startup’s ChatGPT rival, “Grok,” just days after filing a lawsuit against OpenAI, a company he co-founded, for veering away from its original non-profit mission. Musk has been a vocal critic of large technology companies using AI for profit, expressing concerns about their ethical implications.
In a post on X, Musk’s social media platform, he stated, “This week, @xAI will open source Grok,” potentially providing the public with free access to the underlying code for experimentation. This strategic move aligns xAI with other companies like Meta and France’s Mistral, both of which have embraced open-source AI models. Google has also entered the arena by releasing an AI model named Gemma, allowing external developers to customize it for various applications.
Tech investors, including Vinod Khosla and Marc Andreessen, have engaged in debates surrounding the open-sourcing of AI since Musk’s recent legal action against OpenAI. While open-sourcing can accelerate innovation, some experts caution that it may pose risks, such as the potential for malicious use by individuals or groups seeking to exploit the technology.
Musk, who left OpenAI in 2018, expressed his desire to establish a “third-party referee” to oversee AI development during Britain’s AI Safety Summit last year. He emphasized the need for external oversight to raise concerns if AI development veers into potentially dangerous territory.
In response to the perceived shift in OpenAI’s mission, Musk launched xAI last year, aiming to create a “maximum truth-seeking AI.” In December, the startup introduced Grok for its Premium subscribers on X, marking a significant step in the company’s AI endeavors.
Musk’s stance on open-source AI was highlighted in a podcast episode with computer scientist Lex Fridman in November, where he criticized the transformation of OpenAI from a non-profit open-source initiative to a closed-source model focused on maximizing profits.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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Published: 11 Mar 2024, 05:00 PM IST