Grok Review

Grok AI First Impressions: What’s the Verdict on Elon Musk’s New Chatbot?

Elon Musk and xAI have introduced Grok, a new AI chatbot positioned to rival ChatGPT. How well does it fare, and how does it stack up against the established player in the field?

xAI, the AI venture led by Elon Musk, has recently uncovered the prototype of its newest chatbot, Grok. Despite being in its early developmental phase, Grok is already creating a stir, suggesting it might outshine the popularity of ChatGPT, a name that has gained prominence in the past 18 months.

Musk himself has labeled Grok as “the best that currently exists.” While some might perceive this as Musk’s customary bold assertions, the competition between Grok and ChatGPT is evolving into a captivating clash of the chatbots.

Within this guide, we will conduct a detailed comparison between Grok and ChatGPT, exploring various facets such as their history, availability, pricing, language models, responses, data sources, and more.

What’s Grok AI, and What Does “Grok” Mean?

Before we embark on the comparison, let’s briefly acquaint ourselves with what Grok represents.

Grok AI stands as the latest artificial intelligence chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI startup, joining the competitive landscape alongside other players like Google Bard and Claude AI.

The name “Grok” draws inspiration from 1960s sci-fi and a less familiar verb with relevance in the AI domain. According to Oxford Languages, it means to “understand something intuitively or by empathy.” For instance, business leaders might “grok the concept quite quickly.”

This term also has roots in the Martian language, as portrayed in Robert Heinlein’s 1961 novel “Stranger in a Strange Land,” where it primarily means “to drink.” However, it takes on a more profound context, signifying the absorption of something so thoroughly that it becomes an integral part of oneself.

Now, let’s delve into a thorough comparison between Grok and ChatGPT.

Comparing Grok vs ChatGPT Pricing:

As of now, Grok access is limited, but when it becomes more widely available to X Premium+ subscribers, the cost will be $16 per month.

For ChatGPT, there is a free tier that provides access to the chatbot running on the older GPT-3.5 large language model (LLM).

For $20 a month, you can upgrade to ChatGPT Plus, which allows you to use the chatbot with the latest version of OpenAI’s LLM, GPT-4. This ensures better responses and includes advanced features such as the ability to install ChatGPT plugins, integration with DALL-E 3, and the newly added custom GPT building functionality.

Beyond this, ChatGPT offers an Enterprise tier with on-demand pricing. It also provides access to the ChatGPT API for developers and organizations through a token system. Notably, the recently unveiled GPT-4 Turbo model is more cost-effective than its predecessor, GPT-4.

Grok vs ChatGPT: Data Sources and Language Models

ChatGPT constructs its language model by drawing on publicly available data from the internet. This process, sometimes referred to less favorably as “scraping,” involves assimilating information from sources such as books, news articles, social media posts, and online Wikipedia pages.

The resultant large language model (LLM) is the foundation for generating responses when users engage with ChatGPT.

The free-to-all version of ChatGPT utilizes the GPT-3.5 model, trained on information available up to September 2021. While GPT-4 follows a similar principle, it represents a more advanced iteration, enhancing its ability to comprehend and respond to current information presented through ChatGPT prompts.

In contrast, Grok’s prototype operates on a language model known as Grok-1, trained partially using real-time data derived from the X social media platform. This integration of up-to-the-minute knowledge aims to position Grok as the most current AI chatbot, a characteristic emphasized by Elon Musk, who contends that it already surpasses the intelligence of GPT-3.5.

To illustrate his argument, Musk provided the following comparison of responses between Grok and ChatGPT.

It’s evident that Grok provides more current and relevant information compared to ChatGPT. However, any perceived advantage that the xAI chatbot held over its rival was short-lived, as OpenAI swiftly introduced its new GPT-4 Turbo model, almost while people were still finishing dessert at the Grok reveal.

In the GPT-4 Turbo vs GPT-4 comparison, the notable difference lies in a more recent crawl date of April 2023 for the updated version, eliminating any clear winner in this race—especially considering that Grok access is still restricted, preventing us from independently testing it at this point.

Grok vs ChatGPT: Responses

Beyond the technicalities of large language models, a notable distinction between Grok and ChatGPT is Grok’s emphasis on humor.

Elon Musk promises that Grok will deliver witty, sarcastic responses, aiming to provide a more entertaining experience compared to ChatGPT’s sometimes dry replies. Musk has previously criticized ChatGPT and its parent company, OpenAI, for what he perceives as a left-wing bias.

Despite this, the launch of Grok was more light-hearted than overtly political. Musk showcased the new AI chatbot’s capacity for humor by sharing an example of how it can playfully assist users in finding information, using a tongue-in-cheek reference.

Grok vs ChatGPT: Ownership Breakdown

Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, takes pride in being the owner of Grok, established in March 2023 with the ambitious goal of comprehending “the true nature of the universe.”

As indicated by its name, xAI maintains a close affiliation with X Corp (and X Holdings Corp), the larger entity under Musk’s umbrella that owns the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). This interconnectedness is evident in Grok’s release, closely linked to X and with anticipated integration into other Musk projects such as Tesla.

A statement on the xAI website makes it clear that “[xAI is a] separate company from X Corp, but will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to make progress towards our mission.”

On the other side of the spectrum, ChatGPT is under the ownership of a company named OpenAI, founded in 2015 and presently led by CEO Sam Altman. Like Musk, Altman is recognized on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people globally and actively engages with critical tech issues such as AI ethics.

Both companies are headquartered in the San Francisco area. Adding a unique element to the Grok vs ChatGPT rivalry, Elon Musk has invested up to $1 billion in OpenAI in the past. However, a failed attempt to take over management in 2018 resulted in his resignation from the board.

Availability: How to Get Grok

A significant distinction between ChatGPT and Grok lies in their accessibility. While OpenAI’s chatbot is open for anyone to try and has been available since November 2022, Grok is presently limited to a select group of early-stage beta testers.

This discrepancy isn’t surprising, considering ChatGPT’s one-year tenure and widespread availability to the public through the ChatGPT website.

As for Grok, it’s currently undergoing “early beta” testing, as mentioned by Elon Musk. Given Musk’s penchant for expediency, we can anticipate a relatively swift release timeline for Grok.

According to Musk, a more stable version of the Grok beta will be accessible to X Premium+ subscribers, the newly introduced paid tier of X launched in October. This implies that signing up for X Premium+ and expressing interest in Grok are likely to be intertwined in the future. If you want to be at the forefront of experiencing Grok, this is the path to take.

If you’re eager to be part of the Grok beta testing, you can sign up for the waitlist here. However, it’s worth noting that securing early access at this stage might be a bit of a longshot.

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