Musk makes Grok 2.5 AI model free and open source
What's the story
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, xAI, has announced the open-sourcing of its Grok 2.5 model. The move comes after the company open-sourced its Grok 1 model last year. Musk also revealed plans to make Grok 3 publicly available within six months. The announcement was made via a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Open-source movement
Open models is a growing trend in the AI industry
Musk's decision to open-source his AI models comes amid a growing trend in the industry. Earlier this year, his main competitor, OpenAI, launched two new open-source models. This was the first time since GPT-2 that the ChatGPT creator released an open-source model. Meanwhile, Meta has been a pioneer among Western AI companies with its Llama series of models all released under open licenses so far.
Global competition
Global competition driving open-source momentum
Chinese firms like Alibaba and DeepSeek have also made headlines this year for their open-source models. These companies are putting pressure on their Western counterparts to follow suit with similar licenses. This global competition highlights the growing importance of open-source technology in the AI industry, a space where Musk's xAI is now making its mark.
Privacy issues
Controversy over leaked private conversations
Musk's xAI has also faced some backlash over its Grok AI model. The chatbot was recently embroiled in a controversy after it exposed hundreds of thousands of private user conversations online. The issue stemmed from a 'share' button on the chatbot that created unique URLs for conversations, making them accessible to search engines like Google and Bing.