After complaining about OpenAI being closed for so long, Elon Musk finally took a step forward and made Grok-1 open-source.
OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it “Open” AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft.
Not what I intended at all.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2023
This move not only fulfills Musk’s vision of democratizing AI but also sets a precedent for transparency and cooperation in the industry. Now, with Grok-1’s code accessible to all, developers have the opportunity to unleash their creativity and drive innovation forward in ways previously unimaginable. Here are all details you need to know about it.
Elon Musk’s Grok-1 goes open-source
Elon Musk’s xAI has done something big in the world of artificial intelligence (AI). They’ve made the base code of Grok AI model (Grok-1) open-source. This is exciting because Grok-1, as they call it, is a very powerful model with 314 billion parameters. Now, developers all over the world can check it out and use it for their projects.
Here’s why this matters:
- Easy access: Before, only certain people could use Grok-1. Now, anyone can get their hands on it. This means more people can experiment with it and create cool stuff with AI.
- Teamwork: By sharing Grok-1’s code, xAI is encouraging people to work together. When lots of people pitch in and share ideas, it helps make Grok-1 better for everyone.
- New ideas: With access to Grok-1’s code, people can come up with all sorts of new ways to use AI. Whether it’s making existing things better or inventing something totally new, the possibilities are endless.
- Being open: By making Grok-1 open source, xAI is being transparent. This means anyone can see how it works and make sure it’s doing what it’s supposed to. It’s like having a peek under the hood of a car to see how it runs.
- More humorous AI: According to Elon Musk, the Grok system is designed to have humor. So, we will see “funnier” AIs when people start to use open-source Grok-1.
Grok has real-time access to info via the 𝕏 platform, which is a massive advantage over other models.
It’s also based & loves sarcasm. I have no idea who could have guided it this way 🤷♂️ 🤣 pic.twitter.com/e5OwuGvZ3Z
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
They announced this on their blog and posted the code on GitHub for anyone to see. While Grok-1’s basic structure and settings are there, the exact way it was trained is still kept private. This means people can play around with it and make it work for different things.
Grok-1 wasn’t made for one specific task like talking to people. It’s more of a general-purpose model that can be useful in lots of different situations, like understanding text or analyzing data. Here are the benchmarks results for Grok-1:
Before, only special users of the X social network could use Grok as a chatbot. But now, it’s open to everyone. However, it’s important to know that the open-source version doesn’t connect to the social network, which is good for privacy.
Some companies are already talking about using Grok in their own tools. For example, Perplexity CEO Arvind Srinivas wants to make Grok better for finding things in conversations.
Yep, thanks to @elonmusk and xAI team for open-sourcing the base model for Grok. We will fine-tune it for conversational search and optimize the inference, and bring it up for all Pro users! https://t.co/CGn6cIoivT
— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) March 17, 2024
But there are some limits to what you can do with Grok-1 right now. It’s not specifically trained for tasks like talking to people, so it might need extra work to be good at that. This means you can’t just download Grok-1 and start a new company with it right away. You’d have to do more training to make it work well.
In the end, xAI’s decision to share Grok-1 is a big deal for AI. With its huge number of parameters and flexible design, Grok could help make all sorts of new AI projects possible. It’s an exciting step forward in making AI more accessible and useful for everyone.
Featured image credit: xAI
