Elon Musk Announces All Premium X Subscribers Will Get Access to AI Chatbot Grok This Week

Following Elon Musk's decision to open source the Grok large language model in March, he announced on Tuesday that X, formerly known as Twitter, will soon provide its Grok chatbot to a wider audience of paying subscribers. In a post on X, Musk shared that this week, Grok will be accessible to all Premium subscribers, expanding its availability beyond just the higher-priced Premium+ tier.

This expansion could indicate Musk's intention to compete more aggressively with popular chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. It may also reflect X's efforts to increase its subscriber base amid declining user engagement. Recent statistics from Sensor Tower, reported by NBC News, reveal an 18% drop in U.S. X usage year-over-year as of February and a staggering 23% decrease since Musk took over.

Musk's ongoing challenges with advertisers may have impacted the company's revenue streams. According to Sensor Tower, 75 out of the top 100 U.S. advertisers on X from October 2022 have ceased their advertising expenditure on the platform.

By providing access to an AI chatbot, X hopes to deter users from migrating to other platforms such as decentralized alternatives like Mastodon and Bluesky, or Instagram’s Threads, which has successfully attracted over 130 million monthly users, leveraging Meta’s significant resources.

While Musk did not specify the exact timing for Grok's availability, he mentioned it would "be enabled" for all Premium subscribers later in the week.

Later this week, Grok will be enabled for all Premium subscribers (not just Premium+) https://t.co/4u9lbLwe23

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2024

X Premium, the company's mid-tier subscription, starts at $8 per month (or $84 annually). Previously, Grok was exclusively available to Premium+ subscribers, priced at $16 per month or $168 per year.

Grok's chatbot may resonate with Musk's followers and frequent X users, as it can engage on topics typically off-limits to other AI chatbots, including conspiracies and controversial political subjects. Musk has described Grok as having "a rebellious streak," and it boasts the unique capability of accessing real-time data from X—something competitors are unable to provide.

However, the value of this data may be diminishing under Musk’s leadership if X continues to lose users.