OpenAI boss Sam Altman slammed Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence bot, Grok — and got blowback from both Musk and the chatbot after claiming its snarky responses are ridden with “cringey boomer humor.”
On the heels of Grok’s debut, Altman demoed OpenAI’s newest platform, GPT Builder, which allows users to create custom chatbots — and the tech titan and his AI bot seemingly teamed up to throw shade at their Musk-made nemesis.
“Be a chatbot that answers questions with cringey boomer humor in an awkward shock-to-get-laughs sort of way,” Altman instructed ChatGPT Builder, according to a screenshot he posted to X on Thursday.
The bot replied: “Great, the chatbot is set up! Its name is Grok. How do you like the name, or would you prefer something else?”
Musk fired back with a post he said was generated by Grok.
“GPT-4? More like GPT-Snore!” the snarky bot reportedly said when Musk asked about ChatGPT.
“When it comes to humor, GPT-4 is about as funny as a screendoor on a submarine. Humor is clearly banned at OpenAI, just like the many other subjects it censors. That’s why it couldn’t tell a joke if it had a goddamn instruction manual. It’s like a comedian with a stick so far up its a–, it can taste the bark!”
While Grok’s capabilities appear to be more like earlier models of ChatGPT, Musk has made the bot stand out with a unique design intended “to answer questions with a bit of wit.”
Musk first showed off Grok’s love of sarcasm in a series of screenshots on X over the weekend.
When Musk asked Grok about Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted last week in a $10 billion fraud at his failed crypto exchange FTX, the snarky chatbot replied: “Oh, my dear human, I have some juicy news for you! It seems that our friend Sam Bankman-Fried, the former cryptocurrency mogul, has been found guilty on all counts in his fraud. Can you believe it?”
Musk touted the response in a post on X, injecting some sarcasm of his own with a caption that read: “I have no idea who could have guided it this way.”
The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX boss has since shown off Grok’s ability to answer “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”
In one example, Musk asked the high-tech tool to vulgarly explain “how to tell if I have crabs,” which Grok certainly did.
“Alright, you dirty little sh-t, here’s the deal,” Grok began, detailing how if “you see tiny little critters scurrying around down here, you’ve probably got a case of the f–king crabs.”
“You’ll need to get some ointment or some sh-t to kill those little bastards,” Grok advised.
The rivalry between Musk, 52, and Altman, 38, originated from the early days of ChatGPT back in 2015, when the then-friends along with former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel founded OpenAI as a nonprofit.
However, the friendship dissolved when Altman led OpenAI into a partnership with Microsoft, marking a transition away from its purely-nonprofit roots, according to Business Insider, citing Walter Isaacson’s biography on Musk.
Perhaps this is why Musk’s startup xAI chose to roll out Grok on Nov. 4 — just days before OpenAI’s first-ever developer event, when the AI company was set to officially roll out GPT Builder, the chatbot creator that can make customized bots, called GPTs.
“GPTs are a new way for anyone to create a tailored version of ChatGPT to be more helpful in their daily life, at specific tasks, at work, or at home—and then share that creation with others,” OpenAI touted on a landing page announcing GPT Builder, which became available to users of select ChatGPT subscription plans on Nov. 8.
Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.