Paranoid? Worried about the impact of A.I. on your employment prospects? No need to be. AI has been consigned to the definitions bin, to be replaced by so-called Large Language Models (LLM).
Yes, LLMs are the new fear factor, the data equivalent of Shai-Hulud sandworms from the planet Dune, digital creatures that can only be ridden by the ilk of Elon Musk, Tarek Mansour and other Lords of our Universe.
Prediction markets have only just started their disruptive take-down of online sports books and the wider iGaming market.
Exemplified by the recent tie-in between high-profile Kalshi and Elon Musk’s xAI–not AI, as its name implies, I’ll have you know, but an LLM–, they’ve now kicked into even higher gear.
Power Play
As if rooted relationships with the presidential Trump family and putative Commodities Futures Trading Commission Chair Brian Quintenz were not power play enough.
“Effective immediately, Kalshi and xAI are partnering to bring Grok [an LLM] to prediction markets. Two of the fastest growing companies in America are now on the same team.,” xAI confirmed in a media statement.
“Grok”. Not to be confused with “The Gronk”. Remember him? Rob Gronkowski, legendary tight end receiver to legendary Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady. The man who never missed a catch or NFL touchdown missile.
The Grok Musk-Mansour duopoly is aiming to be as unerring in ramming home the growing prediction markets supremacy.
Gambling heartlands such as Nevada and New Jersey having been already dealt with, to hell with Tribal opponents in California and any other comers with the temerity to challenge these new coming, iGaming superstars.
Kalshi Unbound
“What’s in a name,” you may well ask; when AI is LLM and gambling is no longer gambling, or gaming, or iGaming but “predicting”.
According to the definition as parsed by Musk and his acolytes, “LLMs are sophisticated AI systems, specifically AI models, trained on massive amounts of text data to understand, generate, and manipulate human language.
“They leverage deep learning techniques, particularly ‘transformer models’, to identify patterns and relationships within the data, enabling them to perform tasks like text generation, translation, summarization, and question answering.”
All this in the service of cornering the booming U.S. online sports betting business.
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, for one, is jubilant.
Crazy No More
“Today, prediction markets are one of the most powerful tools for understanding the world. What once seemed crazy is now obvious,,” he crowed on LinkedIn.
“We’ve always admired those who defy the odds. And no-one embodies that more than Elon and xAI.
“Together [we’ll] shape the future of this ecosystem.”
The Kalshi deal follows a similar compact signed recently between X and hitherto off-shore prediction market Polymarket, now embracing full legality by the simple expedient of buying-out newly CFTC-registered QCX for US$112 million (£84.36m) earlier this month.
Cryptocurrency, blockchain, AI, LLMs, these guys have certainly got their moves well planned out.
Let’s hope for their sakes’ that Grok doesn’t get “crocked”.
Either definition, British or American, applies.
Watch this space!
