Shortly after screenshots revealed xAI's chatbot Grok being integrated into X's web app, Elon Musk, the owner of X, confirmed that Grok would be accessible to all Premium+ subscribers as early as “next week.” Although Musk's timelines for product launches have fluctuated, recent code developments in X’s app confirm that Grok's integration is actively in progress.
This week, app researcher Nima Owji shared screenshots showcasing Grok’s presence on the X web app, with the URL set to twitter.com/i/grok. One screenshot indicated that non-Premium+ users would receive an invitation to upgrade for Grok access. Another displayed an “Ask Grok” text box designed for user queries to the AI chatbot. While these features were not publicly accessible at the time of discovery, they hint at Grok's impending rollout.
Initially released on November 4 to a select group of testers, Grok is Elon Musk's response to competitors such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, and Anthropic's Claude. It holds the potential to attract users as part of X's expansive social platform.
Moreover, xAI, the Musk-owned company behind Grok, claims that this chatbot will exhibit more personality than its rivals. According to its website, Grok plans to engage users with “a bit of wit” and is characterized by a “rebellious streak.” Additionally, it aims to tackle “spicy” questions often dismissed by other AI systems.
However, Grok's distinguishing features won't be limited to personality alone; it will also tap into real-time knowledge from the X platform, potentially enhancing its responses, albeit with variable accuracy.
The introduction of Grok could boost subscriptions for X’s Premium services, which have not met Musk's optimistic projections. The revamped Twitter Blue has transformed into X Premium, offering benefits like paid verification, enhanced visibility in replies, an edit button, the ability to publish longer posts and videos, and reduced ad exposure.
Recently, X announced a restructuring of its Premium service into three tiers: a $3 per month Basic subscription (with ads), the existing $8 per month X Premium, and a $16 per month Premium+ subscription, which removes all ads in the For You and Following feeds and introduces a Creator Hub for monetized user posts and fan subscriptions.
Grok's inclusion in this higher-priced tier is likely to attract a wider range of X users, not just creators. This additional revenue stream is increasingly vital as X grapples with a decline in advertising due to concerns about antisemitic content on the platform and Musk's controversial stances on certain narratives.
Importantly, Grok's launch follows a turbulent week for OpenAI, during which CEO Sam Altman was ousted in a board revolt, then quickly reinstated after negotiations, with co-founder Greg Brockman joining him at Microsoft.
While Grok’s debut may lack the boardroom drama seen at OpenAI, Altman has taken note, humorously critiquing Grok's comedic capabilities by sharing a screenshot of a GPT prompt suggesting it deliver “cringey boomer humor” and referring to it as Grok. Musk retaliated by dubbing ChatGPT-4 “GPT-Snore,” asserting that “humor is clearly banned at OpenAI, just like many other topics it censors.”
As an early co-founder of OpenAI, Musk withdrew his financial support after being denied control of the nonprofit, resulting in a public feud between him and Altman. This led Musk to establish his AI venture, xAI, enlisting expertise from Google DeepMind, Google Research, OpenAI, Microsoft Research, and Tesla.
Grok has been trained on a knowledge base comparable to that of ChatGPT and Meta's Llama 2, but Musk noted it will uniquely leverage real-time information from X and will have the capability to search the web for current data on various topics.
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