Grimes and Elon Musk may already be embroiled in a custody battle over their secret third child, but there's another thing for them to argue over ownership rights to: Grok.
The first Grok the extremely online world came to know is an "anti-woke" AI chatbot being hawked by Musk on the social media platform we would like to keep referring to as Twitter. It was made by X.ai, the company the billionaire founded to allegedly "save" the site from the so-called wokeness of more common chatbots like ChatGPT, as part of the X Premium Plus subscription tier.
Now, Grok is also the name of an AI-powered plush children's toy Grimes is launching with tech startup Curio, in partnership with purported frenemy OpenAI. The musician born Claire Boucher is an "investor in and advisor to" the startup, as per the Washington Post, as well as the voice of the first toy in the lineup — a rocket, inspired by Grimes's kids' obsession with space travel that seems totally unrelated to their father — to be later joined by Gabbo and Grem.
The interactive little plushies will allegedly be "capable of long-running fully interactive conversation, allowing a child to view it almost as a peer or friend," which is an incredibly sad sentence to relay, but it's my due diligence, I guess. Parents will have access to an app with transcripts of all of the conversations these things have with their kids, empowering them to encourage or discourage certain topics of discussion. For example, a video on the homepage of the Curio website sees Grimes ask Grok how rockets are made. (Uh, billionaires?)
"As a parent, I obviously don't like kids [unintelligible] screens, and I'm really busy, so we've created some AI toys," Grimes explains in that same video. I personally don't really understand the difference between something with a screen and a Her-like relationship with an inanimate object, let alone how the latter could be preferable for your kid, but what do I know!
While announcing the toy — a beta edition is currently available for pre-order for the kind of surprisingly low price of $99 — on Twitter yesterday, Grimes addressed its shared name with her ex's chatbot.
"Absurdly by the time we realized the Grok team was also using this name it was too late for either AI to change names, so there are two AIs named Grok now," she wrote. "I can't wait for them become friends. I can't believe even AI can't avoid showing up at school and meeting another kid with the same name haha."
The first Grok the extremely online world came to know is an "anti-woke" AI chatbot being hawked by Musk on the social media platform we would like to keep referring to as Twitter. It was made by X.ai, the company the billionaire founded to allegedly "save" the site from the so-called wokeness of more common chatbots like ChatGPT, as part of the X Premium Plus subscription tier.
Now, Grok is also the name of an AI-powered plush children's toy Grimes is launching with tech startup Curio, in partnership with purported frenemy OpenAI. The musician born Claire Boucher is an "investor in and advisor to" the startup, as per the Washington Post, as well as the voice of the first toy in the lineup — a rocket, inspired by Grimes's kids' obsession with space travel that seems totally unrelated to their father — to be later joined by Gabbo and Grem.
The interactive little plushies will allegedly be "capable of long-running fully interactive conversation, allowing a child to view it almost as a peer or friend," which is an incredibly sad sentence to relay, but it's my due diligence, I guess. Parents will have access to an app with transcripts of all of the conversations these things have with their kids, empowering them to encourage or discourage certain topics of discussion. For example, a video on the homepage of the Curio website sees Grimes ask Grok how rockets are made. (Uh, billionaires?)
"As a parent, I obviously don't like kids [unintelligible] screens, and I'm really busy, so we've created some AI toys," Grimes explains in that same video. I personally don't really understand the difference between something with a screen and a Her-like relationship with an inanimate object, let alone how the latter could be preferable for your kid, but what do I know!
While announcing the toy — a beta edition is currently available for pre-order for the kind of surprisingly low price of $99 — on Twitter yesterday, Grimes addressed its shared name with her ex's chatbot.
"Absurdly by the time we realized the Grok team was also using this name it was too late for either AI to change names, so there are two AIs named Grok now," she wrote. "I can't wait for them become friends. I can't believe even AI can't avoid showing up at school and meeting another kid with the same name haha."
(Absurdly by the time we realized the Grok team was also using this name it was too late for either AI to change names, so there are two AI's named Grok now, I can't wait for them become friends. I can't believe even ai can't avoid showing up at school and meeting another kid…
— Princess Irulen ® (@Grimezsz) December 14, 2023
