Elon Musk's new AI bot has an attitude - but only for these X subscribers

[highplainsdem]

Because what Musk has done to Twitter isn't bad enough already...

-snip-

Based on details in an announcement from the xAI Team, Grok is designed to answer almost any question and will even suggest questions for you to ask. Grok comes with real-time knowledge of the world based on information from X, which means it will be able to answer questions about contemporary topics. However, the challenge will be to provide accurate data from X without the misinformation that often appears on the platform.

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Modeled on the tongue-in-cheek sci-fi classic "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Grok is designed with a sense of humor and a rebellious edge, according to the team. The AI will answer questions with some wit and even respond to "spicy" questions that other AI bots won't touch.

To show off Grok's sense of humor, Musk posted two tweets that received sarcastic responses from the chatbot, one asking for the steps on how to make cocaine and another asking about Samuel Bankman-Fried, aka SBF, a former cryptocurrency entrepreneur who was convicted of fraud and is facing a heavy prison sentence.

-snip-

Why the name Grok? That's Musk's attempt to tap into the sci-fi zeitgeist. Coined by SF author Robert Heinlein in his book "Stranger in a Strange Land," the term has since been defined as a deep understanding or insight into someone or something. As a Star Trek fan, I remember the phrase "I grok Spock" used to describe an affinity or kinship for everyone's favorite Vulcan.

-snip-

Insulting to two science fiction classics at the same time...

Only those dumb enough to pay $16/mo for Musk's premium plan for X will have access to this bot, which will dumb them down even more.

It will, however, allow them to generate dumb responses to posts on Twitter in just seconds, and presumably without the usual spelling and grammar errors.

[EYESORE 9001]

1. I am declaring farts as a form of AI

They sound like a form of communication sometimes - a blurted-out nonsensical phrase that has no intellectual meaning behind it.

[highplainsdem]

2. Teslas used to emit fart noises, if you wanted them to. Don't know if any still do. This bot is being added to Teslas,

btw.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218431509

[TheRealNorth]

3. Yup

It will flood social media with auto-generated bullshit generated by AI.

They will be taking Steve Bannon's "flood the zone with bullshit" to the next level

[2naSalit]

4. wee.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Robert Heinlein coined the term, "grok."

From his novel, "Stranger in a Strange Land," published in 1961. The Martians, who taught the word to the novel's protagonist, Michael Valentine Smith, used the word as a verb "to drink" and as a noun to describe the process of knowing something profoundly, completely and innately.

FWIW: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy started out as a BBC comedy in 1978.

[highplainsdem]

6. Yes. Two SF classics, as I said. A year ago he was making references to two others. As I said then, he's

a megalomaniac with a science-fiction-fan twist:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217460608#post8

[Kid Berwyn]

7. Science Fiction can be most profound.

Harry Harrison dedicated a work to Brian W. Aldiss. Going by memory, I thought it was "Bill, the Galactic Hero," but it could be another work, in which Harrison wrote:

"To Brian Aldiss, who is plotting the course and reading the sextant for us all."

Over the years, and with all we've learned about quantum entanglement and the Observer/Observed interactions, I came to believe Harrison credited Aldiss with visualizing what can be and helping the world become a different -- and better -- place. It may be why we write and care, we know ideas help build the future. As the Buddha or Socrates or somebody much smarter than I said, "We are what we think."

If you are not familiar with him -- you may enjoy the works of Jorge Luis Borges, someone who really grokked our universe and helped us think about our place in it. Here's a link to one of his short stories that describes the real powers of human imagination:

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2015/12/Borges-Tl%C3%B6n-Uqbar-Orbius-Tertius.pdf

[highplainsdem]

8. Thanks! I've read some of Borges's work, long ago, but can't recall if I read that particular story.

And I think I read more science fiction than anything else in the '60s, '70s and early '80s. I agree it can be profound.