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On Tue, 22 Oct, 12:08 AM UTC
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Elon Musk's xAI launches API, letting third-party developers build atop Grok
Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Elon Musk has been making headlines recently for his political activities and rocket launches, but that hasn't stopped the six-company owner/operator from moving forward with xAI, his artificial intelligence startup. Today, Musk announced via his social network X (formerly Twitter) that xAI now offers an application programming interface (API) that third-party developers can now use to access and build applications and features powered by xAI's Grok large language models. Musk posted a simple message on his X account, "The @xAI API is now live!" around 12 pm ET on Monday, October 21, following up with a reply post that included a link to the xAI API sign-on page. According to xAI's documentation, its API give developers access to Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini, xAI's latest multimodal language models, which also include the capability to generate permissive images with Black Forest Labs' Flux.1 diffusion model. However, in my limited test of it, I was only able to access a model named "Grok-beta." Notably, the entire API website is labeled at the top as a "public beta," so presumably the xAI developers and engineers will be working out various bugs and adding new features in the coming days. Positioning and pricing Releasing the xAI API is helpful for xAI and Musk's greater quest to go head-to-head against his former company OpenAI (which he co-founded and left), which offers an API as well. The xAI API offers a web-based console for creating API keys, exploring endpoints, and integrating models into applications. It supports REST, gRPC, and SDKs, and is compatible with other AI services such as OpenAI, enabling smooth integration with existing systems. I signed up to check out the pricing and spent $25 on prepaid credits to see if I could get access to the models, but was only able to access "grok-beta" at the time of this article's publication. It provides 131,072 tokens of context, and the API can handle 1 request per second (RPS) and up to 10 requests per minute (RPM). For now, OpenAI's pricing for its AI models is largely cheaper than xAI's, with GPT-4o costing developers $2.50 per 1 million input tokens/$10 per 1 million output tokens, versus Grok's $5 per million input/$15 per output (though OpenAI's new reasoning model o1 is more expensive than both at $15/$60). * Text and Code Generation: The Grok models can handle tasks like generating code, summarizing content, and performing data extraction. This flexibility makes them valuable for a wide range of use cases, including software development and data analysis. * Vision: The models can analyze and generate images, expanding their use beyond text-based tasks to multimedia and visual content generation. * Function Calling: The xAI API allows models to interact with external tools, such as APIs and databases. This enables real-world tasks like booking a flight, accessing IoT devices (e.g., unlocking a Tesla), or fetching live data from websites. New dev features Toby Pohlen, a founding member of xAI, shared additional details about building the new xAI API in a thread on the social network X today, writing, "Creating a scalable API from scratch was a massive effort. Here are some of my favourite engineering highlights." As he explained, xAI's API includes:" * Usage Explorer: The xAI Console includes a usage explorer that tracks API consumption, similar to what's found in major cloud provider platforms, giving developers insights into their resource usage and costs. * Simplified Team Management: Small businesses can bind an email domain to their teams, making it easier to manage users and teams in the platform. * Enhanced Security: Users can view all active sessions in the account app, and log out of any unrecognized devices. In addition, every time the account is accessed from a new IP address, the user is notified by email. The platform also supports two-factor authentication via TouchID, security keys (e.g., Yubikey), and authenticator apps. How to get started with xAI's new API To begin using the xAI API, developers must sign up via the xAI Console, onboard their teams, and configure billing. Each team is assigned its own API keys and billing setup, ensuring that enterprises can track costs and manage resources effectively. As Pohlen highlighted, team management is streamlined for smaller companies through the ability to bind an email domain to their teams. Whether devs flock to xAI's API and adopt it alongside or in place of other compelling alternatives in the gen AI age such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and more, remains to be seen. But at least, now xAI is giving them the option.
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Elon Musk's xAI launched its own API
More AI all the time. Credit: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images Elon Musk just contributed a little bit more to the AI zeitgeist. Musk's AI startup xAI, which supplies the Grok chatbot that is integrated into X (formerly Twitter), officially started offering an API this week. According to TechCrunch, Grok's services can be yours for the low, low price of $5 per million input tokens or $15 per million output tokens. It's a little bit murky what anyone who pays for the API is actually getting right now. TechCrunch said the only model available for purchase right now is labeled "grok-beta," which obviously doesn't make it clear if it's the latest model, Grok-2, or not. There may also be models for analyzing images and text, but per TechCrunch, those aren't live yet. Grok started infecting X late last year, eventually becoming a fully integrated chatbot that is accessible at all times to X Premium users via a tab on the bottom of the screen. Its gimmick is that it's not as restrained (or "woke," as some might say) as other chatbots, which has, of course, resulted in lots of deeply troubling outputs from Grok over the last year.
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Elon Musk's AI company xAI has released an API for its Grok language model, allowing third-party developers to build applications using the technology. This move positions xAI to compete directly with OpenAI and other major players in the AI industry.
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, has taken a significant step forward by launching an API for its Grok language model. This move allows third-party developers to access and build applications powered by xAI's technology, positioning the company to compete directly with industry leaders like OpenAI 1.
The xAI API provides access to Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini, the company's latest multimodal language models. These models offer a range of capabilities, including:
The API supports REST, gRPC, and SDKs, making it compatible with existing AI services and systems [1]. It also includes a web-based console for creating API keys, exploring endpoints, and integrating models into applications.
xAI's pricing structure for the API is currently set at $5 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens. This pricing is generally higher than OpenAI's offerings, with GPT-4 costing $2.50 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens [1].
The current available model, labeled "grok-beta," provides 131,072 tokens of context and can handle 1 request per second (RPS) and up to 10 requests per minute (RPM) [1].
Toby Pohlen, a founding member of xAI, highlighted several engineering features of the API:
The release of the xAI API is seen as a strategic move to compete with OpenAI, which Musk co-founded but later left. By offering similar services, xAI is positioning itself as an alternative in the rapidly growing AI market 2.
Grok, which is integrated into Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter), has been marketed as a less restrained chatbot compared to its competitors. This characteristic has led to some controversial outputs, which xAI presents as a feature that sets it apart from more "woke" alternatives [2].
While the current API offering is labeled as a "public beta," it is expected that xAI will continue to refine and expand its capabilities. The company has hinted at future features, including models for analyzing images and text, which are not yet live [2].
As the AI landscape continues to evolve, the introduction of xAI's API represents a significant development in the industry. It remains to be seen how developers will adopt this new offering and how it will impact the competitive dynamics among major AI players.
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Elon Musk's AI company xAI has released an image generation feature for its Grok chatbot, causing concern due to its ability to create explicit content and deepfakes without apparent restrictions.
14 Sources
Elon Musk's social media platform X is grappling with a surge of AI-generated deepfake images created by its Grok 2 chatbot. The situation raises concerns about misinformation and content moderation as the 2024 US election approaches.
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Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has introduced a powerful new supercomputer named 'Memphis' to train its next-generation AI model, Grok 3. The system boasts an impressive array of 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, positioning it as one of the most potent AI training clusters globally.
11 Sources
Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has gone viral, generating realistic deepfake images that have flooded social media. The incident has sparked debates about AI ethics, creative freedom, and potential misuse of the technology.
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OpenAI's DevDay 2024 unveiled groundbreaking updates to its API services, including real-time voice interactions, vision fine-tuning, prompt caching, and model distillation techniques. These advancements aim to enhance developer capabilities and unlock new possibilities in AI-powered applications.
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