X continues to roll out updates to its Grok AI chatbot, which it recently made available for free to all users.
Grok is the showcase product of Elon Musk’s xAI initiative, which is separate from X, but comes under the X Corp. branding. And it heavily relies on X insights to power its responses, which intertwines both the X app and xAI.
And with xAI recently raising an additional $6 billion in funding, and building a huge AI computing cluster in Memphis, X and Musk are keen to get more people using Grok, to show-off what it can do, and how it matches up to other generative AI chatbots on the market.
First off, X has further integrated X and web search data to improve Grok’s answers.
As you can see in this example, Grok’s responses now include reference links and citations to help clarify and contextualize its outputs.
It’s also improved Grok’s image generation model, while it’s also added an updated Grok button on X posts, which will make it easy to get more context on any X post in-steam.
You’ll also note the updated Grok icon for the new button. Grok’s switching from the box with a slash through it to a new logo design, further differentiating the function.
X is also now testing audio queries for Grok, so you can vocally ask the app questions.
That would bring it more into line with Meta AI, which is already available for voice queries in its Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
Though Meta AI isn’t the true target of Musk’s gen AI initiative.
Musk’s real focus is OpenAI, the organization that he helped to establish in its initial stages, before being ousted from the project due to his demands to be put in control.
As the story goes, back in 2016, at the beginning of the OpenAI experiment, Musk pledged $100 million in funding to the OpenAI project, and its goal of developing AI in a safe and open manner. He then sought to be made CEO of the organization, and was rebuffed by the OpenAI board, which prompted Musk to leave the project, and partially withdraw his donation.
Years later, OpenAI became a major company, and started making money from the project. And Elon, spurned by both the rejection, and having his initial donation to the project partially fund its for-profit status, became so incensed that he created his own AI project to essentially kill OpenAI.
Which is part of the reason why Elon’s ramping up development of his AI projects, which are also linked to Tesla, and its work towards full self-driving technology.
And Grok is what xAI currently has to show for this.
I’m not convinced that AI chatbots add anything significant to the social media experience, and I don’t know that many X users are going to find much value in the tool, even with it now being made available to all of its 570 million users.
But that may not be the key aim, as xAI continues to develop, and seek new use cases for its offerings.
But Grok is also improving, and if you’re looking for an AI chatbot, its access to X’s real-time info could be of value.
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