Elon Musk has recently targeted OpenAI with a lawsuit, claiming that the AI startup has deviated from its original goal of building AI for humanity, free of cost. He says OpenAI is now focusing purely on profit on behalf of its tech giant partner Microsoft.
Soon after filing the lawsuit, Musk has now announced that his own AI chatbot built by xAI, Grok, will be going open-source soon. The ChatGPT competitor has been available to paying users on X (formerly Twitter), a platform owned by Musk.
On numerous occasions, the billionaire has cautioned against big technology companies like Google leveraging technology solely for profit.
Elon Musk helped found OpenAI in 2015 but left the startup three years later. He had pledged to invest a total of $1 billion into OpenAI, but following the recent lawsuit, the startup revealed that Musk did not even invest half of that and did not have much of an impact on the company’s growth.
OpenAI released emails revealing that the Tesla CEO endorsed a proposal to establish a for-profit entity and advocated for a merger with the electric vehicle manufacturer to transform the merged entity into a “cash cow.”
Musk has now announced on X that “This week, @xAI will open-source Grok,”
Opening up the technology could provide the public with unrestricted access to delve into its code, thereby aligning xAI with companies like Meta (META.O) and France’s Mistral, known for their embrace of open-source AI models.
Moreover, Google’s recent unveiling of an AI model named Gemma offers external developers the opportunity to tailor it to suit their specific requirements.
Ever since Musk filed the lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker, tech investors, including OpenAI supporter Vinod Khosla and Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, have engaged in discussions regarding the open-sourcing of AI.
Although opening up technology to the public has the capacity to expedite innovation, certain experts raise concerns that open-source AI models could be utilized by terrorists to manufacture chemical weapons or potentially lead to the development of a conscious super-intelligence beyond human oversight.
Via: Reuters
