Elon Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence startup open source grokits chatbot that rivals ChatGPT, said this week, days after suing OpenAI and complaining that the Microsoft-backed startup had strayed from its open source roots.
xAI released grok last year, providing it with functions that include access to “real-time” information. The service is available to customers who pay X’s $16 monthly subscription.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI as a counterweight to Google. But OpenAI, which was also supposed to make its technology “freely available” to the public, has gone closed source and shifted its focus toward maximizing Microsoft’s profits, Musk alleged in the lawsuit filed late last month. (Read OpenAI answer here.)
The lawsuit has also sparked debate among many technologists and investors about the merits of open source AI. Vinod Khosla, whose company is among the first to back OpenAI, called the lawsuit a “major distraction from the goals of reaching AGI and its benefits.”
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, responded to Khosla’s tweet by accusing him of “pushing to ban open source research” in AI. “Every major new technology that promotes human well-being is met with heightened moral panic,” he added. “This is just the latest.”
Grok’s impending open source promise means xAI will join the list of several growing companies, including Meta and French startup Mistral, that have released their chatbot codes to the public.
Musk has long been an advocate of open source. Tesla, another company he runs, has many of its patents are open source. “Tesla will not pursue patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology,” Musk said in 2014. X, formerly known as Twitter, also opened up some of its algorithms last year.