ChatGPT Vs Grok – Grok vs ChatGPT: Does Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Measure Up?

“A new rival for ChatGPT has emerged – It’s Grok!”

Grok is an AI chatbot that was launched on the 4th. Nov 2023 by Tesla founder Elon Musk and his new AI startup, xAI, after just two months of training. It runs on a large language model known as Grok-1, built by xAI in just four months!

According to the announcement, the chatbot aims to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and other AI systems. It is also designed to answer with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak. Musk claims that his AI bot is already superior to ChatGPT 3.5.

Before diving into the nitty gritty, I’ll start with a brief overview.

The Human-Friendly Chatbot – ChatGPT

ChatGPT is the world’s favorite AI chatbot, which was launched on 30th November 2022 by OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman. It has grabbed the public’s attention because of its ability to have human-like discussions on almost any topic. This chatbot is built upon the GPT-3 language model and has been fine-tuned with supervision and reinforcement learning. 

OpenAI’s ChatGPT can grasp the human language and engage in meaningful conversations. It can write essays, generate code, answer trivia questions, and carry out other human-like tasks. Because of its prodigious conversational ability, millions of people have embraced it a lot.

With the success of ChatGPT, Sam Altman launched GPT-4 in March this year. The advanced model, GPT-4, is more creative, collaborative, and powerful than ever before and can solve complex problems more accurately. Shortly after GPT-4’s popularity, an AI chatbot named Grok was unveiled.

The Chatbot that loves Sarcasm – Grok

Then there comes Grok. It is a new AI chatbot that xAI’s CEO Elon Musk launched on the 4th of Nov, 2023 (almost one year after ChatGPT’s release).

Its name derives from the sci-fi author Robert Heinlein’s term “grok,” which means to comprehend something instinctively. According to xAI, Grok will assist people in their quest for understanding and knowledge. 

• This bot has a sense of humour

As per xAI’s statement, Musk’s chatbot is inspired by “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” and has a “touch of humor” and a “rebellious streak”. It loves sarcasm and will answer in a humorous way: “Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor!”.

He posted a screenshot where he asked his bot for a step-by-step guide to make cocaine. The chatbot seemed to dodge the sensitive question as it injected humor and sarcasm into the reply. It provided the step-by-step guide and then said, “Just kidding! Please don’t actually try to make cocaine. It’s illegal, dangerous, and not something I would ever encourage.”

• It is more powerful than GPT-3.5

Musk introduced Grok with great enthusiasm to challenge ChatGPT, claiming the prototype is already superior to ChatGPT 3.5  across several benchmarks. He added that compared to ChatGPT, Grok is safer and better. 

• Provides real-time knowledge

Most AI chatbots (like ChatGPT) rely on static datasets, but Grok is different in that it can tap into a continuous stream of live data from X to form the most recent opinions. In the words of xAI, “A unique and fundamental advantage of Grok is that it has real-time knowledge of the world via the X platform.” This gives it an up-to-date understanding of global events and sets it apart from other language models.

• Can answer forbidden questions

Musk claimed that his AI tool can answer almost anything, even questions that are forbidden on rival chatbot platforms. He said, “It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”

• And integrates into X

Moreover, unlike ChatGPT, which serves as a standalone app, Elon’s Grok will be integrated into X and operate as a novel engine named ‘Grok-1’. 

Currently, it is undergoing testing with a selected group of users in the US. If it becomes successful, all the premium users of X (erstwhile Twitter) will be able to use and make the most of it. 

During the past few days, Grok’s CEO has been sharing updates on Grok via his social media platform X, which was once known as Twitter. And now, with newly added features, tweaks to the algorithms, and subscription plans, X has entered the AI chatbot race. 

But it seems weird as Musk has vocally opposed the rapid development of AI.

What’s odd about Grok’s launch?  

Earlier this year, several dominant AI researchers, entrepreneurs, and engineers signed an open letter for a six-month pause on the development of AI systems better than OpenAI’s GPT-4. They thought that the technology was so dangerous that it could flood us with disinformation, eliminate countless jobs, and even destroy humanity. 

Interestingly, xAI’s CEO, Elon Musk, was among the most prominent signatories who requested an AI pause. “I signed that letter knowing it was futile,” said Elon. “I just wanted to be on the record as recommending a pause.”

Also, he ignored his own call for a slowdown very quickly and, in July, announced xAI, his new venture he said would compete with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google and go beyond existing AI. 

Twitter traffic since Musk’s Takeover

When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he made a number of changes to the platform along with its name and legacy verified checkmarks. According to some sources, since Mr. Musk became Twitter’s CEO, the platform has faced a notable decline in its traffic. It has lost a pool of its app’s daily active users.

In response, Elon Musk shared a tweet from DogeDesigner, a graphic designer at Dogecoin, in which he wrote in favor of X’s CEO Elon Musk.

He said, “The organic traffic on X.com continues to rise while traditional media is busy spreading false claims that X is losing traffic.”.

To which Musk replied, “Correct”.

Elon Musk & Sam Altman

Soon after the launch of Grok, the two tech titans started to criticize each other’s Large Language Models (LLMs). Here’s what they say:

• Musk mocks ChatGPT & Other AI systems

The tech mogul Elon Musk says that ChatGPT is old news, while Grok is the future of AI. He says Grok promises to deliver a truly unique and unrivaled user experience and is superior to ChatGPT in several ways. 

Mr. Musk couldn’t wait to compare ChatGPT and other AI chatbots with his own on his timeline.

In order to show Grok’s capabilities, he shared a side-by-side comparison with ChatGPT. He claimed that the other AI chatbot didn’t provide recent information about a recent interview with Joe Rogan. Elon wrote, “Example of Grok vs typical GPT, where Grok has current information, but other doesn’t.”

• Altman makes a dig at Grok

The chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, faced a new challenge as Mr. Musk-led xAI launched the AI chatbot Grok to compete with ChatGPT. Through his numerous X posts, the world’s richest man explained the superiority of Grok over other AI systems, especially ChatGPT. Altman took the chance to respond.

He shared a screenshot of the most recent version of OpenAI’s platform, which now lets you create tailored versions of ChatGPT known as GPTs. In his version, he instructed ChatGPT 

“Be a chatbot that answers questions with cringey boomer humor in an awkward shock-to-get-laughs sort of way.”

The bot responded: 

“Great, the chatbot is set up! Its name is Grok. How do you like the name, or would you prefer something else?”

To which Altman said:

“GPTs can save a lot of effort.”, a clear dig at Musk’s Grok.

ChatGPT vs. Grok – Main Differences

The widely used AI bot, ChatGPT, and Elon’s newly introduced Grok are based on Large Language Models (LLMs). However, they possess unique features that distinguish them from each other. Below, we’ve shared the main differences between the two AI chatbots. 

• Developer goals

ChatGPT is meant to be an AI chatbot that hosts conversations in a more human-friendly manner. In comparison, Grok was developed to be an AI chatbot that counts on the vast reserves of the latest data on X and answers most questions with a healthy dose of humor.

• Ownership

Grok was created by Elon Musk and his team of professionals at xAI, his AI venture. Conversely, ChatGPT is the creation of OpenAI, a company that does AI research. These divergent ownership models impact how AI systems are developed and directed.

• Accessibility

With its November 2022 launch, ChatGPT opened up its vast potential to a large user base. But Grok is only available to a specific group of US users as it’s still in its beta phase. As per Mr. Musk, once Grok’s system is out of early beta, all X Premium+ subscribers can access it. 

• Communication tone

Unlike ChatGPT, which has a more formal communication style, Grok intends to answer questions in a witty and sometimes rebellious manner. This difference in their tones provides a unique user experience that caters to diverse communication preferences.

• Data sources

OpenAI’s ChatGPT boasts an extensive and varied dataset. It extracts data from Wikipedia books, web content, Common Crawl, and other texts up to 2021. In contrast, Grok learns from real-time data from the X-platform. Because of this, Grok stands out for its relevancy and freshness. 

• Speed

Chatbot response times are crucial for a smooth conversation flow. Here, ChatGPT lags somewhat, as its average response time is 7-15 seconds. In contrast, Grok has faster response times of 1-2 seconds. This results in a seamless and more natural discourse flow.

• Pricing

OpenAI offers two versions of ChatGPT – a basic free version that does not provide real-time updates and a $20 monthly premium version that does. However, Grok costs a lower price of $16 per month for X’s Premium+ subscribers. This makes Grok a more affordable choice.

• Hand-grade evaluation

The hand-graded evaluation of Grok-1 showed it passed the 2023 Hungarian national high school mathematics finals with a C grade (59%). It exceeds Claude’s 55% but falls short of GPT-4’s B grade (68%). This shows that Grok-1 is more potent than OpenAI’s GPT-3.5.

• Capabilities

Grok-1 scored 73% on the Mathematics Middle-Level Understanding (MMLU) test and 63.2% on the HumanEval coding task. Compared to Grok-0, xAI has largely enhanced Grok-1’s performance in a short time. Grok, however, still lags behind the latest model, GPT-4. 

 What is Grok’s future?

ChatGPT and Grok, the two rivals, are vying for the top spot in the digital space. Compared to ChatGPT, Grok is still in its infancy. And there are still many things to learn about Grok. But to make it better, xAI is actively working on improving safety measures to avoid malicious use.

In addition, Grok is on its way to becoming even more intelligent at replying with enhanced wit and humor. It is already voice-ready and will also be able to recognize images and audio files soon. Not only this, xAI plans to give it the ability to generate images as well.

Hence, one thing is clear – Grok has a lot of potential. The AI chatbot with a sense of humor and real-time information is up to par! And there’s no doubt that this bot is ingenuous and intriguing, but owing to its restricted availability and data sources, we can’t say that will take on the renowned AI chatbots. 

Grok is funny, but…?

Grok may be funny, but to carry out an actual task, it may not help you – instead, it could land you in hot water if it extracts data from ill-suited Tweets from a hostile foreign country or someone who doesn’t filter their tweets. 

You seek an AI that answers with accuracy and honesty, and it won’t be possible with one trained on Tweets, as Tweets are usually inexact and dishonest. When people rely on such Tweets to make decisions, we could have a lot of whacked-out AIs. 

Elon’s Grok or Sam’s ChatGPT – Whose bot is better?

It’s clear that both AI chatbots, Elon Musk’s Grok and Sam Altman’s ChatGPT, have their own strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths

Grok stands tall in dynamic environments due to its rapid learning capabilities and intuitive responses, whereas ChatGPT succeeds with its linguistic skills and proven track record.

Weaknesses

On the other hand, Grok is less established and offers limited accessibility, while ChatGPT lacks real-time information and has the potential for bias.

Closing Thoughts

The billionaire technology leader caused a stir in the AI world when he unveiled Grok. Despite joining the chatbot party late, Musk’s AI is making big promises.  

However, the ultimate choice now solely banks on what your specific needs are and the kind of conversations you aim to navigate. Whether your priority is ChatGPT’s proven reliability or Grok’s adaptive intelligence, the future of AI generative is indubitably exhilarating!If you are seeking exceptional ChatGPT integration services or conversational AI chatbot development services, you can count on us. As a leading software development company, we build highly powerful chatbots that brilliantly solve customer queries, minimize costs, and increase sales. With our ChatGPT integration, we help you generate reliable content and provide improved support.