The launch of Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot, a witty and rebellious AI competitor to ChatGPT, has triggered the creation and surge of hundreds of AI-related tokens, some of which have soared over 1,300% in value.
Elon Musk’s new AI venture, xAI, has unveiled Grok. This chatbot can access information from X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and answer questions with humor and sarcasm.
The announcement of Grok, which aims to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has sparked a wave of speculation and investment in AI-related tokens, some of which have skyrocketed over 1,300% since their launch.
Grok’s Rebellious Streak
Grok is an AI chatbot modeled after The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a comedy sci-fi novel by British author Douglas Adams.
According to xAI, a company founded by Musk and composed of former employees of Google, DeepMind, and other AI firms, Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so it is not suitable for users who hate humor.
Grok is powered by a large language model called Grok-1, which xAI claims has surpassed GPT-3.5, the model used by the publicly available version of ChatGPT, on some benchmarks, such as solving middle-school math problems.
Grok-1 is only outperformed by GPT-4, a more powerful model that is not yet been released to the public.
Grok has access to information from X, the social media platform that Musk acquired last year and rebranded from Twitter.
The language model can use X posts to retrieve and generate relevant and updated answers to user queries.
It can also interact with users on X, as Musk demonstrated by posting some screenshots of Grok’s responses to questions such as ‘How to make cocaine’ and ‘What is the meaning of life?’
A New Crypto Craze
The launch of Grok has also triggered the creation and surge of hundreds of AI-related tokens, which are cryptocurrencies used to power AI-based projects and services, such as decentralized exchanges, image or text generation, investment protocols, and more.
According to data from Dextools, a platform for tracking and analyzing decentralized applications, almost 400 AI-related tokens have appeared on various blockchains since the announcement of Grok.
Many of these tokens have the name or symbol of Grok, although xAI has not officially launched or endorsed any of them.
Some of these tokens have seen massive price increases, attracting low-cap traders looking for quick profits.
For example, one of the GROK tokens launched on the Ethereum blockchain has rallied 1,300% since its debut, reaching a market cap of around $10 million and a trading volume of $7.32 million.
Another GROK token created on Saturday has grown 387.19% in 24 hours, reaching a market cap of $4.52 million and a trading volume of $4.78 million.
However, these tokens also carry high risks, as they are not regulated, audited, or verified by any authority.
Many of them could be scams, rug pulls, or pump and dumps, which aim to defraud investors by inflating the price of a token and then selling it at a high price, leaving the buyers with worthless tokens.
Musk’s Influence on the Crypto Market
The Grok chatbot and the AI token frenzy are the latest examples of Musk’s influence on the crypto market.
The billionaire entrepreneur, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been known for his ability to move the market with his actions and tweets, especially regarding Dogecoin, a meme-based cryptocurrency that he has repeatedly endorsed and promoted.
Elon Musk’s tweets have also affected the price of Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap, as well as other altcoins, such as Ethereum, Cardano, and Solana.
Musk has also announced that Tesla will accept Bitcoin as a payment method and that he personally owns Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin.
Musk’s involvement in the crypto space has also attracted criticism and controversy, as some accuse him of market manipulation, misinformation, and irresponsibility.
Some regulators, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), have also expressed concerns about Musk’s tweets and their impact on the crypto market.
He has defended his actions and tweets, saying that he is a supporter of crypto and that he believes in its potential to create a better and more inclusive financial system.
He has also said that he is a free speech absolutist and will not censor or delete any content on X, the social media platform that he owns, and that Grok uses as a source of information.