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posted by hubie on Thursday November 09 2023, @11:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-bans-all-AI dept.

So much for the temporary delay or ban on AI. Musk named his AI Grok. I'm surprised by the lack of X:es in the name. Perhaps it would have looked odd considering the name of the Musk AI Company is xAI.

Somewhat unclear if the Grok is referring to Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy Grok or to Heinleins Stranger in a Strange Land. If you take inspiration from Hitchhikers then it shouldn't be that hard to program. If all else fails, the answer to a query is always 42. So I guess we'll know what it will default to when it starts looping hallucinations.

Also Grok should apparently be really into sarcasm, so that will end well and not lead to any kind of misunderstandings or interpretations. None.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/05/elon-musk-unveils-grok-an-ai-chatbot-with-a-rebellious-streak

https://grok.x.ai/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Thursday November 09 2023, @12:01PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Thursday November 09 2023, @12:01PM (#1332249) Journal

    And you have to sign in with TwitterX. No.....thank you.

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Samantha Wright on Thursday November 09 2023, @12:05PM (12 children)

    by Samantha Wright (4062) on Thursday November 09 2023, @12:05PM (#1332250)

    There's no mention of grokking anything in the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The verb of choice is sass, as in,

    "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."

    With the subsequent explanatory note:

    (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Thursday November 09 2023, @01:54PM

      by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 09 2023, @01:54PM (#1332260)

      They should have called it Grox instead: just like the not-so-friendly race [fandom.com] from the game Spore.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Thursday November 09 2023, @02:46PM (7 children)

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday November 09 2023, @02:46PM (#1332265) Journal

      From the article:

      Grok is a verb coined by American science fiction writer Robert A Heinlein and according to the Collins dictionary means to “understand thoroughly and intuitively”.

      Grok has been built by Musk’s new AI company, xAI. Staff at xAI explained the chatbot’s debt to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the cult sci-fi comedy by British author Douglas Adams, in a blogpost on Saturday.

      “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!

      “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!”

      The xAI team said Grok was powered by a large language model – the fundamental technology behind AI chatbots – called Grok-1.

      The name isn't from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, rather the chatbot itself was designed with inspiration from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In other words, it's designed to sound sarcastic and witty.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @03:19PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @03:19PM (#1332266)

        > ...rather the chatbot itself was designed with inspiration from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

        That may be the intent of this shameless steal of Heinlein's "grok". However, I think it's much more likely to be the marketing department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corp, "Share and Enjoy". Or in other words, crap.

        We're a very long way from realizing "the book" -- the electronic HHGTTG that Ford contributes to.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Thursday November 09 2023, @10:03PM (2 children)

          by deimtee (3272) on Thursday November 09 2023, @10:03PM (#1332324) Journal

          We're a very long way from realizing "the book" -- the electronic HHGTTG that Ford contributes to.

          Only because we don't have starships to visit everywhere to write the reviews.
          The technology of the book itself is basically wikipedia on a smart phone with "Don't Panic" on the cover.

          --
          One job constant is that good employers have low turnover, so opportunities to join good employers are relatively rare.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @02:42PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @02:42PM (#1332397)

            > The technology of the book itself is basically wikipedia ...

            Or maybe not? This appears to be what happens when you ask ChatGPT about "the book in HHGTTG",
                  https://www.jailbreakchat.com/prompt/ba121030-01d4-4d64-af83-86fe6d570c93 [jailbreakchat.com]
            Or perhaps I'm misinterpreting the source of the grammatically correct but useless text shown at the link?

            Using Wikipedia requires some knowledge of the subject matter, to find the right article(s) that can answer your question. The HHGTTG electronic book takes care of all that initial research for you (or at least that's how I interpret Douglas Adams' concept).

            • (Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Sunday November 12 2023, @12:42AM

              by deimtee (3272) on Sunday November 12 2023, @12:42AM (#1332562) Journal

              Maybe there was some AI involved, but every HHTTG book interlude in the TV show or books that I remember started with "The HHTTG had this to say about ..." implying to me that you had to give it specific subjects and it would then return an entry on that subject. Basically wikipedia but more snarky.

              Remember, this was written in the seventies and eighties of last century. Wikipedia on a smart phone would have been a far out science fiction idea back then.

              --
              One job constant is that good employers have low turnover, so opportunities to join good employers are relatively rare.
        • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday November 10 2023, @03:03PM

          by Freeman (732) on Friday November 10 2023, @03:03PM (#1332401) Journal

          Considering all that it lead to was the destruction of Earth, again. I'm going with the HGTTG was about as useful as ChatGPT.

          --
          Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Thursday November 09 2023, @08:40PM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Thursday November 09 2023, @08:40PM (#1332306) Journal

        A (chat-)bot from the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy? I think it must be extremely depressed …

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 3, Touché) by Samantha Wright on Thursday November 09 2023, @10:50PM

        by Samantha Wright (4062) on Thursday November 09 2023, @10:50PM (#1332336)

        Right; I was responding to the rather dreadful editorialization in the summary:

        Somewhat unclear if the Grok is referring to Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy Grok or to Heinleins Stranger in a Strange Land.

        As there is no such thing as a "Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy Grok," there is no ambiguity.

        The secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @03:27PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @03:27PM (#1332268)

      The real question is: can a hoopy drive a hooptie and still be a hoopy?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Thursday November 09 2023, @06:25PM (1 child)

      by captain normal (2205) on Thursday November 09 2023, @06:25PM (#1332290)

      I would say given Musk's apparent obsession with going to Mars, the term is lifted from Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land". I think he imagines himself as a modern incarnation of "Jubal Harshaw".

      --
      The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
      • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday November 09 2023, @10:05PM

        by deimtee (3272) on Thursday November 09 2023, @10:05PM (#1332326) Journal

        He doesn't think he's "Jubal Harshaw", he thinks he is "Delos D. Harriman".

        --
        One job constant is that good employers have low turnover, so opportunities to join good employers are relatively rare.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday November 09 2023, @12:34PM (12 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Thursday November 09 2023, @12:34PM (#1332252)

    is that newer generations barely understand sarcasm and almost never understand irony anymore. Everything is to be understood literally, and whenever possible, with excessive gravitas and drama nowadays.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by ledow on Thursday November 09 2023, @12:36PM (3 children)

      by ledow (5567) on Thursday November 09 2023, @12:36PM (#1332253) Homepage

      Yeah, okay boomer, sure.

      • (Score: 5, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday November 09 2023, @05:39PM (2 children)

        by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Thursday November 09 2023, @05:39PM (#1332285)

        Oh yeah, let's not forget the ultimate answer to stuff young people don't like: Okay Boomer.

        Which was offensive for 5 minutes until it became so overused that it started marking those who use it as having no original thoughts of their own instead...

        • (Score: 3, Touché) by ledow on Friday November 10 2023, @02:00PM (1 child)

          by ledow (5567) on Friday November 10 2023, @02:00PM (#1332388) Homepage

          For someone who was all about the sarcasm, that one went right over your head.

          • (Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Saturday November 11 2023, @03:11AM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 11 2023, @03:11AM (#1332471) Journal
            It wouldn't have 40 years ago!
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Samantha Wright on Thursday November 09 2023, @01:45PM (5 children)

      by Samantha Wright (4062) on Thursday November 09 2023, @01:45PM (#1332258)

      I find that when someone says something like this, it usually turns out said someone actually made an incredibly offensive or tasteless joke, and have decided that "[audience] doesn't comprehend humour" is an easier out than accepting the truth that the social norms and values of yesterday are no longer acceptable.

      It certainly can't be sincerely asserted that young people no longer embrace or understand sarcasm. They invented Birds Aren't Real [wikipedia.org], which is universally regarded as an excellent example of committing to an ironic bit. And there's no lack of continuity, either; the entirety of meme culture is rich in sarcastic language but is driven almost entirely by Millennials and Gen Z.

      So. Maybe you should just tell us what incredibly tasteless thing you said that made you go all sour grapes, hmm?

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @03:31PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2023, @03:31PM (#1332270)

        Good and funny post, but my Rx for people of Earth: lighten up. Y'all are literally creating 98% of society's problems, up to and including death, destruction, and wars. Chill out, find some constructive hobbies, take things with a huge grain of salt, be that better person you so long for in the world.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @03:27PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @03:27PM (#1332410)

          You first.

      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday November 09 2023, @05:34PM (1 child)

        by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Thursday November 09 2023, @05:34PM (#1332284)

        I find that when someone says something like this, it usually turns out said someone actually made an incredibly offensive or tasteless joke

        You just demonstrated that you don't know what irony is. Who said anything about jokes?

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @07:42PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @07:42PM (#1332437)

        I find that when someone says something like this, it usually turns out said someone actually made an incredibly offensive or tasteless joke, and have decided that "[audience] doesn't comprehend humour" is an easier out than accepting the truth that the social norms and values of yesterday are no longer acceptable.

        You're not saying anything new. The problem is: revisionism. You and others are trying to change what was accepted societal norms. Those changes may be good and maybe even necessary for a better society. But you're not doing a good job of teaching. You should learn a bit of psychology. Scolding, shaming, denigrating, sometimes physically attacking people is not the way to get your opinion accepted and societal change. And, you're making yourselves look very stupid by not showing acceptance for others' points of view, and for not showing that you should know that others might not be educated on your better ways. In other words, your severe repugnant indignation toward simple ignorance is in and of itself hurting your own cause.

        In case you never learned, it is 100% animal instinct, including humans, to resist an attack. Cops need to learn this too, but they don't care because guns and "qualified immunity", which needs to be abolished.

        Point is, it's just making society worse by being so triggered and reacting so harshly. Show the kindness and patience you supposedly espouse (but don't seem to exemplify).

        As I said above, lighten up.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Thursday November 09 2023, @08:08PM

      by crafoo (6639) on Thursday November 09 2023, @08:08PM (#1332302)

      I think that is true of the millennials but gen-z just seems tired of irony and sarcasm. probably because they associate it with old people and think of it as old people humor. also they were born into and are growing up in an age of continuous decline so they tend to absurdist humor.

    • (Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Friday November 10 2023, @05:39AM

      by Beryllium Sphere (r) (5062) on Friday November 10 2023, @05:39AM (#1332363)

      I've seen widespread failures to grasp sarcasm from long before the current generation.

  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by melyan on Friday November 10 2023, @01:07AM

    by melyan (14385) on Friday November 10 2023, @01:07AM (#1332347) Journal

    Cher would not approve.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday November 10 2023, @04:48AM (2 children)

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Friday November 10 2023, @04:48AM (#1332359) Journal

    If all else fails, the answer to a query is always 42.

    Ehm...

    :$ swipl
    Welcome to SWI-Prolog (threaded, 64 bits, version 9.0.4)
    SWI-Prolog comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software.
    Please run ?- license. for legal details.

    For online help and background, visit https://www.swi-prolog.org
    For built-in help, use ?- help(Topic). or ?- apropos(Word).

    ?- _.
    % ... 1,000,000 ............ 10,000,000 years later
    %
    %       >> 42 << (last release gives the question)
    ?-

    While a trivial Prolog program "_." is syntactically correct and logically valid (it means everything), and used as query in toplevel interpreter a correct implementation should name all logical atoms of the Herbrand Universe of the Prolog language, no current implementation of any Prolog engine is capable enough to do that. Never will be.

    This. This is why I do not believe in LLM fake AIs (because they are even weaker than logical languages) and why there always will be an existing method to break the LLM machine down with hidden recursion and indirect self-reference.
    Just like I described a case in my SoylentNews journal not long ago.

    LLMs are futile. Turing is laughing at you from his grave. Musk should know better.
    Blame Goedel, not me.

    --
    Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @02:50PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 10 2023, @02:50PM (#1332399)

      OT, just curious, what sorts of things do you do in Prolog?

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday November 10 2023, @05:48PM

        by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Friday November 10 2023, @05:48PM (#1332419) Journal

        Just two things:
        1. Binary disassemblers and reassemblers. Topology of binary code.
        2. Artificial Intellect Personoid (AIP).

        Theoretical Herbrand Universes of programming languages are quite underrated.

        Since Prolog can construct syntax of any programming language by core language, its Herbrand Universe contains not only all Prolog programs as atoms, but also all programs in all other programming languages.
        Including all programs in machine code for all possible machines.
        In compare to that, Herbrand Universes of many other programming languages are just tiny subset. Many languages (like C, C++ or Rust) are not self-referent, so they cannot perform analysis of themseves.

        A nightmare of government agencies, it also contains all strings. Theoretically, that means all secrets, including all possible encryption keys and all secret messages are also contained in Prolog's Herbrand Universe...

        In compare to that, any LLM is just a crippled, mutilated bastard. You get back only mutilation of what you stuffed into it. That 's why you get 3 toe and 7 hand fingers on generated girls imagery by LLMs.

        --
        Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
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