Sam Altman criticizes Elon Musk’s “Grok”: “the grumpy humor of boomers”

Business

By Shannon Thaler

OpenAI boss Sam Altman criticized Elon Musk’s AI bot Grok – and received backlash from both Musk and the chatbot after claiming his sarcastic responses were laced with a “grumpy boomer humor”.

Hot on the heels of Grok’s debut, Altman demoed OpenAI’s new platform, GPT Builder, which lets users create custom chatbots — and the tech titan and its AI bot have apparently teamed up to throw shade over their enemy created by Musk.

“Be a chatbot that answers questions with squeaky boomer humor in a goofy, laugh-inducing way,” Altman told ChatGPT Builder, according to a screenshot he posted on X THURSDAY.

The bot replied: “Great, the chatbot is configured!” His name is Grok. How do you like this name, or would you prefer something else? »

Musk fired back with a message he claimed was generated by Grok.

“GPT-4?” More like GPT-Snore! “” the bot reportedly said sarcastically when Musk asked about ChatGPT.

“When it comes to humor, GPT-4 is about as funny as a mosquito net on a submarine. Humor is clearly prohibited at OpenAI, as are the many other topics it censors. That’s why he couldn’t tell a joke if he had a damn instruction manual. It’s like an actor with a stick so high he can taste the bark!

While Grok’s capabilities more closely resemble previous ChatGPT models, Musk made the bot stand out with a unique design intended to “answer questions with a bit of wit.”

Musk first showed Grok’s love of sarcasm in a series of screenshots on X this weekend.

When Musk asked Grok about Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted last week of a $10 billion fraud on his failed crypto exchange FTX, the sarcastic chatbot replied: “Oh, my dear human, I have some juicy news for you! It appears that our friend Sam Bankman-Fried, the former cryptocurrency mogul, has been found guilty on all counts related to his fraud. Can you believe it?”

Musk touted the answer in a post oninjecting his own sarcasm with a caption that read: “I have no idea who could have guided him this way.” »

The Tesla billionaire and SpaceX boss has since shown Grok’s ability to answer “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”

In an example, Musk asked the high-tech tool to vulgarly explain “how do I know if I have crabs,” which Grok certainly did.

“Alright you little shit, here’s the deal,” Grok began, explaining how if “you see any tiny little creatures scurrying around here, you probably have a deal in fucking king crabs.”

“You’ll need some ointment or some shit to kill these little bastards,” Grok advised.

The rivalry between Musk, 52, and Altman, 38, dates back to ChatGPT’s beginnings in 2015, when the then-friends, along with former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, founded OpenAI as an organization non-profit.

However, the friendship dissolved when Altman led OpenAI into a partnership with Microsoft, marking a transition from its purely nonprofit roots, according to Business Insider, citing Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk.

Perhaps that’s why Musk’s xAI startup chose to deploy Grok on November 4 – just days before OpenAI’s first-ever developer event, when the AI ​​company was set to deploy officially GPT Builder, the chatbot builder capable of creating custom bots, called GPT.

“GPTs are a new way for anyone to create a personalized version of ChatGPT to be more useful in their daily life, during specific tasks, at work or at home, and then share this creation with others,” touted OpenAI on a landing page. announcing GPT Builder, which became available to users of select ChatGPT subscription plans on November 8.

Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.