Grok Corrects Einstein's Blackboard; Elon Musk Reacts
A California physicist Luis Batalha shared images of using ‘Grok’ to fix Einstein’s famous blackboard via social media ‘X’ where Grok suggested the corrections to mend the equation. Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared the post and praised Grok’s efficiency in correcting the image.
“Here is ‘Grok’ understanding a picture of Einstein’s famous blackboard and then remaking the image with corrections!”, Elon Musk wrote.
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“Using Grok’s new ‘Edit Image’ to fix Einstein’s famous blackboard”, Batalha wrote. The post mentioned Grok’s suggestion for the blackboard. “This is Einstein’s blackboard. However, there was an error in Einstein’s calculations: Einstein stumbled in converting megaparsecs to cm, giving a “ρ” that was too high by a factor of 100, a “P” that was too low by a factor of 10, and a “t” that was too high by a factor of 10. Please correct the image”. Grok said.
Here is @Grok understanding a picture of Einstein’s famous blackboard and then remaking the image with corrections! https://t.co/glGzCS3nex
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 22, 2025
Einstein’s famous blackboard refers to a chalkboard used by Albert Einstein during a lecture at the University of Oxford on May 16, 1931. It contains handwritten equations related to cosmology and the expansion of the universe. The blackboard, preserved at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, showcases Einstein’s work on the age and size of the universe, reflecting his contributions to general relativity and cosmology.
The writing on the blackboard, although ephemeral in nature, is of historic interest because the equations displayed are taken from a model of the universe proposed by Einstein in May 1931 known as Friedmann–Einstein universe. The last three lines on the blackboard are estimates of the density of matter in the universe ρ, the radius of the universe P and the timespan t of the expansion of the universe respectively. Grok found error and corrections in this equation.
Grok is an AI chatbot developed by xAI, a company founded by Elon Musk in 2023. It is designed as a competitor to ChatGPT and other AI models, integrating directly with X (formerly Twitter).
