Elon Musk’s new company, xAI, made an AI helper called Grok AI, which Tesla is going to add to its electric cars. This integration is a big, if controversial, step forward for Tesla in its quest to make cars that are easier to use and more engaging.
Elon Musk, who is known for trying to change the way people travel on Earth and in space, started xAI earlier this year with the goal of figuring out how the world works. Its main goal right now, though, is to make a chatbot or AI helper like ChatGPT. “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”-style weirdness and intelligence are said to have inspired Grok AI, the first project of xAI.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2023
The show “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert A. Heinlein is where the word “grokking” came from; it meant feeling deeply connected to others and joining with them. A very telling choice for an AI that is meant to both answer questions and suggest new ones, showing both wit and a hint of disobedience.
With the addition of Grok AI, Tesla takes a big step toward AI-assisted drive.
The Grok AI in Tesla cars is likely to use the huge amount of data from xAI. Not surprisingly, Musk wants to make Grok AI available on social media sites through a paid subscription service, so more people than just Tesla owners can use it.
Tesla’s dedication to voice-command technology in its cars makes this combination a solid base. In line with Musk’s vision of cars that can predict and meet owners’ wants without them having to do anything, the company has been steadily improving the voice-command features in its cars. It is thought that adding Grok AI will be a natural next step toward this goal, making the user experience even smoother.
Vampire Survivors ? pic.twitter.com/pZGxRJIioD
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2023
Brian Roemmele, an early beta tester, says that a “smaller quantized” version of Grok AI will run directly in Tesla cars using the computers that are already there. Musk’s response to this story shows that he wants Tesla cars to be more than just ways to get around; he wants them to be hubs of distributed computing power as well. In a world where Tesla’s robotaxis are common, these vehicles could be used for both transportation and distributed computing, which could be very useful for SETI.
With the addition of Grok AI, Tesla takes a big step toward AI-assisted drive.
There isn’t a set date for when Grok AI will be built into Tesla cars, but the fact that some xAI users can already use it in early beta shows that a wider rollout is coming soon.
Tesla wants to improve the driving experience and, for better or worse, change the way people have been interacting with cars for a hundred years. If this technology keeps getting better, it could lead to a new age of smart, interactive, and easy-to-use cars. We could either look forward to that or be afraid of it. Maybe a little of both?
