Newsletter 0611023

Newsletter 06112023: Elon Musk unveils Grok, a ChatGPT competitor

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Elon Musk unveils Grok, a ChatGPT competitor

Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI launched Grok, a ChatGPT competitor.

Musk has accused ChatGPT of being a mouthpiece for the “woke” agenda and has criticized its creator, startup OpenAI, for being secretive and too cozy with its backer Microsoft. 

Interestingly, Musk co-founded OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, in 2015 but stepped down from the company's board in 2018.

Musk’s new AI company, xAI, wants to position Grok as an alternative to ChatGPT. The company’s goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe“.

Derived from the term meaning “to understand thoroughly and intuitively,” Grok is more than just an AI Assistant. It joins the league of similar technologies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard assistant but with a twist – a humorous personality.

According to xAI, 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! A unique and fundamental advantage of Grok is that it has real-time knowledge of the world via the 𝕏 platform. It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems. Grok is still a very early beta product – the best we could do with 2 months of training – so expect it to improve rapidly with each passing week with your help.

Elon Musk explained that the Grok AI assistant will be provided as part of 𝕏 Premium+..…..Continue reading

CRYPTOCURRENCY

‘Crypto King’ Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of FTX fraud

Sam Bankman-Fried, who once ran one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, has been found guilty of all seven criminal counts against him at the end of a month-long trial in New York. The FTX founder faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison.

Bankman-Fried, the 31-year old son of two Stanford legal scholars and graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors, and conspiracy to commit money laundering..……..Continue reading

SOCIAL MEDIA

Meta will soon stop forcing your Threads posts onto Facebook 

It looks like Meta may be pumping the brakes on one of its more aggressive, and unpopular, growth-hacking tactics for Threads. The company appears to be working on a new privacy setting so Threads users can opt-out of having their posts cross-posted to Facebook and Instagram feeds.……Continue reading

X is reportedly soliciting people to buy old Twitter handles for $50,000

According to Forbes, X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, has been trying to find buyers for user handles it reclaimed from inactive accounts, even going so far as to send out solicitation emails asking for “a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase.”

Elon Musk announced back in May that X, formerly Twitter, would start purging accounts that have gone dormant, and has alluded to plans for recycling disused handles.

According to emails seen by Forbes, X now has a task force called the “@Handle Team” that’s working on creating a marketplace for buying handles tied to inactive accounts……Continue reading

OTHER STORIES

• Personal Finance app, Mint is shutting down. Mint, the budgeting app owned by Intuit, is shutting down. Intuit announced last week that Mint will get absorbed into Intuit’s other service, Credit Karma, when it officially goes away on January 1st, 2024. But it’s still not clear whether Credit Karma will get the budgeting features that Mint is known for. Intuit first acquired Mint in 2009, an app that has offered a free way for users to track their budgets, manage expenses, negotiate bills, and keep tabs on subscriptions. Now, Intuit is inviting users to Credit Karma, a service that the company acquired in 2020...……The Verge

• Brave introduces ‘Leo’ AI assistant on its desktop browser. Brave joins the growing list of browsers that come with built-in generative AI assistants. The open source browser developer has started rolling out an update for Brave on desktop, which gives users access to its AI assistant Leo. Brave introduced Leo through its Nightly experimental channel back in August and has been testing it ever since......….Continue reading

• Starlink is now available in Benin. Just after recently been authorized to operate in Zambia, Starlink, the satellite internet network by U.S. company SpaceX, announced on Friday, November 3, the availability of its services in Benin. This marks the 7th African country to access the commercial services of billionaire Elon Musk’s company, following Nigeria, Mozambique, Zambia, Rwanda, Kenya, and Malawi…….Continue reading

• Fets, UnionPay Partner to Launch Virtual Cards in Nigeria. Funds and Electronic Transfer Solutions (Fets), a leading provider of innovative payment solutions and UnionPay International (UPI), a world leader in payment services, have announced an alliance to issue virtual cards via the Fets app in order to increase UPI card issuance in Nigeria. This partnership offers a full range of payment options by utilizing both Union Pay’s vast card acceptance network and fets’ cutting-edge payment technology through its fetswallet App……..Continue reading

• NASA to launch ‘Nasa+’ a free streaming service with live shows and original series Nov. 8. NASA has announced a new streaming service called NASA+ that’s set to hit most major platforms next week. It’ll be completely free, with no subscription requirements, and you won’t be forced to sit through ads. NASA+ will be available starting November 8…..Continue reading