The decision to transition to open source provides the general public with unrestricted access to explore and manipulate the underlying code of the technology.
Shortly after initiating legal action against the developers of ChatGPT at OpenAI, Elon Musk revealed plans for his AI venture xAI to release its proprietary software 'Grok' as open source. Musk, who is both a co-founder and an early investor in OpenAI, had filed a lawsuit alleging that the organization had veered away from its original nonprofit mission in favor of a profit-oriented approach.
In response to Musk's lawsuit, OpenAI disclosed emails indicating that the Tesla CEO had endorsed a strategy to establish a for-profit entity and had expressed interest in merging with his electric vehicle company to create a highly lucrative combined entity. Musk took to Twitter on Monday to announce, "This week, @xAI will open source Grok," indicating that the AI tool, which was initially accessible only to xAI subscribers, would now be freely available to the public. This move to open-source Grok enables individuals to freely explore and experiment with the underlying code of the technology.
In a subsequent comment, Musk expressed skepticism towards OpenAI, stating, "OpenAI is a lie," further emphasizing his concerns about the use of artificial intelligence technology for profit-driven motives by corporations such as Microsoft and Google.
By opting to make Grok open source, xAI aligns itself with other companies like Meta and Mistral, which have made their chatbot codes accessible to the public. Additionally, Google has released Gemma, an AI model that can be customized by external developers to suit their specific requirements.
