Elon Musk mentioned that xAI, the rising company in the field of artificial intelligence which he owns, plans to make the AI-based chatbot program, known as Grok and a competitor to ChatGPT, available as open-source this week.
Authorities stated, after several days of filing a legal claim against OpenAI, expressing their objection to the departure of the rising company receiving support from Microsoft from its original principles based on open sources.
xAI launched the chatbot “Grok” last year, providing the bot with features including real-time data and opinions access. The service is available to customers who pay a monthly subscription fee on the X platform, priced at $16.
Elon Musk contributed to the establishment of OpenAI alongside Sam Altman about ten years ago to counter Google’s dominance in the field of artificial intelligence.
OpenAI demanded that its technology be made available for free to the public, although it has turned into a closed-source technology and diverted its efforts towards increasing the profits of Microsoft. This is what Elon Musk claimed in the lawsuit he filed last month.
The case sparked a wide debate among tech experts and investors about the benefits of open-source artificial intelligence.
Vinod Khosla, one of the early supporters of OpenAI, described Elon Musk’s legal action as a major distraction from the core goals and potential benefits of achieving comprehensive artificial intelligence.
Mark Andreessen, one of the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, was accused of Khosla leaning towards intervening to stop research related to open-source artificial intelligence.
Andreessen, a founder of the investment firm a16z that invested in Mistral, specializing in artificial intelligence, stated that “every modern technology seeking to enhance human well-being faces a wave of manufactured ethical panic”.
Grok’s announcement to make its source available to everyone indicates xAI’s private artificial intelligence technology company joining a growing number of institutions building and developing technologies based on open sources. This group also includes companies such as Meta and Mistral, the latter being a French startup in the field of artificial intelligence that has made its chatbot’s code available to the public.
Musk has always supported the idea of open sources, with Tesla opening the sources of many of its patents to the public.
Elon Musk stated in 2014 that Tesla would not file lawsuits against any party wishing to use the company’s technology in good faith. The year before, SpaceX unveiled and shared some of the algorithms it relies on.
