Schlagwort: Grok

Innovationen, Plattformen

X grokt die Struktur der deutschen Sprache nicht

Das Sprachmodell Grok von xAI wurde am 4. November 2023 einer ausgewählten Gruppe von Benutzern präsentiert. Das Start-up von Elon Musk veröffentlichte am selben Tag eine Erklärung. Grok sei eine KI, die dem Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy nachempfunden ist und daher fast alles beantworten kann und, was noch viel schwieriger ist, sogar vorschlägt, welche Fragen man stellen sollte. Das Wort „Grok“ selbst stammt aus einem anderen berühmten Science-Fiction-Roman, nämlich „Stranger in a Strange Land“ (1961) von Robert A. Heinlein, der zu den wichtigsten Autoren in diesem Genre zählt. Wenn man als Marsianer etwas grokt, versteht man es vollständig, manchmal so sehr, dass man mit ihm verschmilzt. Im Mai 2024 wurde Grok in X integriert. Wenn man auf „Grok“ klickt, ist zu lesen: „Premium-Abonnent*innen können nun unsere fortschrittlichste KI, Grok, auf X nutzen.“ … Damit baut X – vormals Twitter – wieder einmal Sonderzeichen ins Wortinnere ein, wo sie nichts verloren haben – wie andere amerikanische Firmen, allen voran Microsoft. Es scheint nicht einfach zu sein, die Struktur der deutschen Sprache zu groken.

Abb.: Elon Musk liebt Fantasiesprache (Bild: Ideogram)

Diskussionen, Innovationen

Grok Wants to be the 21st Century Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

xAI’s new language model Grok was unveiled to a select group of users on November 4, 2023. Elon Musk’s startup released a statement the same day: „Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask!” (Website xAI) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a fictional guide book for hitchhikers in the universe written in the form of an encyclopedia and the namesake of the famous novel by Douglas Adams. „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!“ (Website xAI) These capabilities are reminiscent of DeppGPT, the chatbot of the German satirical magazine Postillon. „A unique and fundamental advantage of Grok is that it has real-time knowledge of the world via the 𝕏 platform. It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.“ (Website xAI) This statement seems particularly important. It makes sense for chatbots of this type to follow moral rules, i.e., to be shaped by machine ethics. However, chatbots like ChatGPT refuse too many requests and are therefore of limited use. Not only that, but they also refuse to acknowledge essential areas of human existence, such as sexuality. The word „Grok“ itself comes from another famous science fiction novel, „Stranger in a Strange Land“ (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein.

Fig.: Fictional cover of „The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“ (Image: Ideogram)

Definitionen, Innovationen

Will Elon Musk’s Grok Grok the Universe?

Elon Musk has named his new language model Grok. The word comes from the science fiction novel „Stranger in a Strange Land“ (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein. This famous novel features two characters who have studied the word. Valentine Michael Smith (aka Michael Smith or „Mike“, the „Man from Mars“) is the main character. He is a human who was born on Mars. Dr „Stinky“ Mahmoud is a semanticist. After Mike, he is the second person who speaks the Martian language but does not „grok“ it. In one passage, Mahmoud explains to Mike: „‚Grok‘ means ‚identically equal.‘ The human cliché. ‚This hurts me worse than it does you‘ has a Martian flavor. The Martians seem to know instinctively what we learned painfully from modern physics, that observer interacts with observed through the process of observation. ‚Grok‘ means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed – to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science – and it means as little to us as color means to a blind man.“ Mike says a little later in the dialog: „God groks.“ In another place, there is a similar statement: „… all that groks is God …“. In a way, this fits in with what is written on the website of Elon Musk’s AI start-up: „The goal of xAI is to understand the true nature of the universe.“ The only question is whether this goal will remain science fiction or become reality.

Fig.: This is how Ideogram imagines the cover