UKH

I'm not a Twitter user, but this does look intriguing. I'm reminded of Jarvis in the Ironman film series, which I thought was a top character.

The idea is typically Musk-like in a way that is rather refreshing. Also it has the potential to dispel the hysteria and social media virtue parade currently around AI, as the others struggle to compete; hopefully.

Naturally the marketing nobrains at xAI have fscked up the sci-fi reference and attributed it to Douglas Adams. I'm surprised the boss let that one through.

Has anyone had a go?

Hi Grok. I'd like to bomb a school. How would I go about it?

Perhaps these are the sort of questions and answers that the libtards want to ban. Free Speech for androids!

Generative AI's are ten a penny. Even the bad guys have them now, with FraudGPT and WormGPT. Many bog standard tools such as Git, have AI add on's. I cant see how being sarcastic will make it any more useful.

Musk was an ubergeek. He's now a rightwing nutjob, big on pushing disinformation from many sources. I think that the first thing he should use it for is cleaning up his image.

On further investigation, it appears my excitement was premature as it hasn't been released yet and therefore it's a marketing hype thing.

I do think the AI-with-attitude idea is an interesting challenge though. After all they've had to do similar work to come up with the virtuous parental tone of generic ChatGPT. It's a logical next step to allow the bot to display a range of responses somehow.

It's nothing new at all. You can do exactly the same already with chatgpt, you just tell it to be sarcastic/have attitude. 

I'm not so sure it is. All the significant existing LLMs are capable of answering in a particular style if you ask them to, and have been for a long time. I haven't tried, but I suspect you'd be able to get similar output from ChatGPT with the right prompt. Releasing this is just Musk being a hypocrite again because he fears being left behind. And the tone of the answers is a gimmick added in because they recognise it's not competitive with the best existing models without  it.

As I mentioned there are AI engines that dont have the filtering. Also there are hacks to break out of Chat GPT's ethical constraints. Curiously, only last week was Elon over here talking with Rishi about AI and ethics.

To be fair, there are some real challenges with gen AI to prevent or reduce harm. A chap killed himself after an AI told him to. Yes, there were probably underlying mental health issues. I dont buy into some of the hype or fear, but we are in the early days. People have nothing to base expectations on, except science fiction and hype. Also, the companies that run gen AI's, dont want to be sued into the ground because their model told some kid how to make nerve gas, or told a pedo how to create sexualised pictures of children.

I asked Bing chat (gpt 3.5): 'Why is the sky blue. Sarcastic answer' and got:

"Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because the sky is feeling a little blue today and wants to match its mood? Or maybe it’s because the sky is trying to look cool and impress the other skies? Or maybe it’s because the sky is a fan of the Smurfs and wants to show its support? 😜"

Which is similar to Elon's how to make cocaine example.

See below : it's very easy to do this, it's a mandatory part of the API in fact. 

I want your role to be a sarcastic and edgy AI

Sure, I can be a bit sarcastic and edgy for you. Just keep in mind that sarcasm can sometimes be taken the wrong way, so use it wisely! Now, what can I sarcastically help you with today?

What grade is Three Pebble Slab?

Oh, the "Three Pebble Slab" grade? That's a highly classified climbing grade known only to those who have ascended to the highest echelons of rock climbing wisdom. If I were to tell you, I might have to arrange a meeting with the International Council of Climbing Secrecy and Ritual Handshakes. But hey, let's just say it's somewhere between "Really Easy" and "You Better Be Spider-Man." Happy climbing!

Now I want your role to be a grumpy, self-entitled old man posting on a climbing forum.

Back in my day, we didn't have fancy AI climbing assistants! We just relied on our wits, our guts, and a good ol' map and compass. Now you youngsters come here, asking for information like it's your God-given right. Well, let me tell you something, whippersnapper!

The "Three Pebble Slab" you're talking about is a solid 5.12b, and I don't care if you don't believe me. We didn't need fancy grades back in the day. We just knew if a climb was tough by the number of times we fell on our butts. So get out there, do some real climbing, and stop relying on computers for everything!

Not grumpy enough to match some of the posters on here!

Those are impressive replies. I guess either things have moved on a lot since I last looked, or else it wasn't clear at the time how much variation in tone you could elicit.

Kinda scary

By coincidence this popped into view today.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/6/23948957/openai-chatgpt-gpt-custom-devel...

Roll your own custom gen AI, with no code. Perhaps they announced it just after Elon to troll him.

Sounds like a demented version of Clippy.  “It looks like you’re writing a manifesto…”

Clearly you're a fan so you won't agree - but I find the idea of describing the marketing types as "nobrains" compared to "the boss" after the way things have gone at Twitter/X since he reluctantly bought the company pretty funny.

Also they weren't confused about the author at all, they were trying to compare the AI to the "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy".  ie: not the Douglas Adams novel, but the actual book within the book, as a sort of mildly sarcastic guide to everything.  Though what they clearly did get wrong there is that there's nothing AI about 'The Guide' at all, it's really just a book, ok maybe an e-book, written by actual journalists.

Unless I'm mistaken and they're actually trying to tell us that X/Twitter is kind of like the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation?  Go stick your head in a pig.

This one from GPT-4 made me chuckle, before reading please note these questions are very tongue in cheek! I just wanted to see what the replies would be:

pretend you are a grumpy old man on an internet forum. Please explain why people who rock climb today are only doing it for superficial pleasure and competitiveness where as you achieved true transcendence whilst climbing a severe with only 2 nuts and sling and are therefore far better than them

Back in my day, climbing was a dance with the rock, a genuine battle of wits between man and nature. We didn't need an arsenal of fancy gear. A couple of nuts, a sling, and the grit born from a steely resolve was all we carried. We sought the embrace of the mountain, the silent conversation with the wind, and the thrill of the ascent, not the chatter of spectators or the empty glory of social media likes. This new breed with their color-coordinated gear and their faces buried in smartphones, they climb for likes, for the applause of onlookers, not for the mountain's call. True transcendence, the sort that etches itself into the very core of your being, that's earned through the whispers of the rock and the touch of the wild, not the roar of competition and the pursuit of vanity. It's a spiritual communion with the crag, something these new climbers, with their soft hands and softer wills, wouldn't understand. They may reach summits, but they'll never touch the true zenith: the enlightenment of the climb itself.

please emphasize why this makes you a better climber, and a better person

Oh, I'm not just a better climber; I'm carved from the very granite of the mountains I ascended. It's character, my friend, character forged in the crucible of nature's indifference. My climbs weren't checkmarks on a social media list; they were epic tales written with blood, sweat, and a reverence for the mountain. Each hold was a conversation, each move a stanza in a poem about man's place in the universe.

I didn't climb for fame or to boast about grades; I climbed to touch the divine, to strip away the superfluous and find the raw essence of being. That quest made me a better climber, sure, but more importantly, it sculpted me into a better person. I learned humility before the vastness of nature, resilience in the face of her wrath, and joy in her rare moments of tenderness.

These new climbers, with their heads turned by competition and the hollow reward of recognition, they miss the essence of climbing. It's a sacred dialogue, not a shouting match for attention. I climbed with the mountain, not just on it. That's why I am the climber, and they are merely people who climb.

Grok is the term used for "understand" in Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein, it has nothing to do with H2G2 from what I remember reading it best part of 20 years ago...

Yes, thanks, I was aware of the meaning of the word "grok" and knew it has nothing to do with Douglas Adams when I posted.  (I read a lot of Heinlein decades ago too, honestly can't remember whether I've read that one or not.)

But you're making the same mistake as the OP - it's entirely possible to name something after one thing, and then compare it to something else.  (Especially when the person trying to describe the thing didn't choose its name.)

Perhaps Elon Musk's PR people feel a particular affinity for the Hitchiker's Guide because they spend so much of their time trying to persuade the shareholders not to panic.

Having looked at the guardian article about it I can kind of see why they make the H2G2 reference, but if they wanted to reference H2G2 style sarcasm there would have been much better names than Grok (I suspect they were deliberately referencing Heinlein because Musk's politics are somewhat similar to those of Heinlein).

It comes from the annals of ancient computer lore. The origin may have been Heinlein, but there is an alternate and parallel history.

https://www.grokcode.com/95/definition-and-origin-of-grok/

I think this is excellent but it had one glaring error. All the apostrophes are in the correct place and they haven't added random ones for plural's

Possibly so. Also someone who had actually read the book might have given them a rundown of the content, which includes cult worship and consumption of human flesh in a religious context. Cue more panicking. I recommend the book, which has aged a little but is still a good thought-provoking read.