Elon Musk, founder of artificial intelligence firm xAI, announced that the company will release Grok 2, its advanced chatbot, as open source next week. The declaration was made through a post on X, where Musk wrote, “It’s about time we open sourced Grok 2. It will happen next week.”
This marks a significant divergence from the increasing industry shift towards closed-source models. Musk’s announcement comes shortly after OpenAI introduced two new models, GPT-OSS-120b and GPT-OSS-20b, which are “open-weight” rather than fully open source. These models provide access only to pre-trained parameters, not the underlying data or development methods.
OpenAI, once known for its open-source ethos, has recently prioritized commercial expansion. It now limits access to its technology while offering paid APIs and enterprise tools. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even admitted earlier this year that the company may have taken a “wrong turn” by restricting open access.
In contrast, Musk reaffirmed xAI’s commitment to transparency. He previously stated that every new version of Grok would be accompanied by the release of its predecessor’s source code — as was the case with Grok 1.
By releasing Grok 2 openly, xAI aims to stimulate collaboration, innovation, and trust within the global AI community. This move could ease entry barriers, empowering developers and researchers to build on existing work.
As AI development surges forward, Musk’s approach might influence other companies to reconsider their stance on model accessibility.