6 things Elon Musk's Grok 2 AI chatbot can do that ChatGPT can't
NurPhoto via Getty Images
You may know that xAI is Elon Musk's new artificial intelligence company, founded in July 2023. But you may not know that xAI's latest AI model, Grok-2, is gradually being rolled out on X (formerly Twitter) for premium users. Grok-2's advantage over other LLMs is that it was trained on X's billions of tweets and real-time data.
Rowan Cheung is the founder of The Rundown, a fast-growing AI newsletter that delves into the latest developments in AI. In less than two years, The Rundown has gained over 500,000 subscribers who stay up to date on the latest developments in artificial intelligence through its content.
Cheung got early beta access to X's new AI chatbot, Grok-2, which he says “could ultimately completely change how we use the platform.” According to Cheung, there are six things Grok-2 can do that ChatGPT can't:
Grok-2 and ChatGPT: What can OpenAI's LLM not do?
1. Real-time search on X
Grok-2 has access to real-time information about X, which is a given: it’s a huge database of content from millions of sources that other LLMs like ChatGPT don’t have. We don’t yet know how xAI will select the data to populate Grok, but it’s likely based on tweets that have proportionally higher impressions and engagement, i.e. tweets that are performing well.
Twitter has been around since 2006 and posts an average of 200 billion tweets each year – a potentially huge amount of data, including a lot of information from scholars, public figures and news media that you won’t have access to in other LLMs.
2. Image without filter
“Grok-2's integration with FLUX allows it to generate unfiltered images,” Cheung said. ChatGPT and DALL-E 3 cannot do this. This means Grok-2 can generate images of real people, including celebrities and politicians, and can create images with potentially sensitive or controversial content. However, there appear to be few limitations on generating images that may infringe copyrights or trademarks.
If you find the images generated by ChatGPT to be limited or dissatisfying, Grok-2 can help. However, be extra scrutinizing of what you see online, as fake images are rife with them when using this feature.
3. Dual Mode
Grok-2 gives you access to two modes: normal and “fun.” Though similar to the regular Grok model, the chatbot's fun mode has a more distinctive personality, which Cheung claims is “more entertaining than ChatGPT's boring responses.”
Get into your own fun mode with our playful LLMs, and you might come up with some novel ideas to grow your business that ChatGPT would never have thought of.
4. Referencing Posts
“Grok not only summarizes news, but also references the tweets that the data originates from,” Cheung explains. Anyone who has used ChatGPT to get important information knows how important references are. X's exclusive access to data gives Grok a huge advantage over ChatGPT in this regard. Cheung believes that “revenue sharing on highly viewed tweets would be really great.”
ChatGPT doesn't normally reference them at all, but this allows for better fact-checking and allows you to follow threads of content back to their original sources. This feature brings Grok-2 closer to Perplexity.
5. DirectX Integration
Grok-2 is integrated directly into X and has its own tab within the web and mobile platforms, which Cheung says is a real benefit for X enthusiasts. There's also an “Ask Grok” button on posts that gives you a summary of the post in seconds.
If you spend a lot of time on X, it makes sense that an LLM is right there. As we become AI native, not only will we no longer need to keep switching between apps, but we will also demand advanced functionality from all our tools.
6. Roast X Profile
Yes, that's right! Grok integrates directly with X, so you can ask it to roast your X handle (and even request the worst tweet of all time). To do this, you'll need to put Grok into “Fun Mode.”
This feature provides some fun, but also shows off the capabilities of Grok-2 and will no doubt encourage users to try out the new LLM. Are you brave enough to get criticized for your tweets?
Which AI chatbot is better: Grok-2 or ChatGPT?
While xAI claims to “outperform both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4-Turbo at the time of this blog post,” Cheung doesn't believe that even with this feature, Grok-2 is better than ChatGPT in most cases. “Yes, if you're using it for one of the use cases listed above, but not yet in general,” he said. “OpenAI is still leading the LLM race for now, even though xAI is seriously closing the gap.”
If you're a Premium X user, you'll be able to use the Grok-2 for these six uses and more right away.
