Elon Musk’s latest AI venture, xAI, is preparing to launch its new chatbot, Grok, exclusively for subscribers of its Premium+ service at $16 a month after the product completes its beta testing. Grok is expected to be a direct competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and a select number of users have already begun to test it this weekend.
Musk has teased the AI’s interface on social media, noting that Grok’s replies will be infused with his signature brand of humor. He boasted of Grok’s advanced capabilities, particularly its real-time information retrieval from the xAI platform, as a significant advantage over other existing AI models. While there’s no definitive timeline for Grok’s wide release, Musk has promised that all Premium+ subscribers will gain access once it’s ready.
These developments are particularly timely, considering they coincide with OpenAI’s first developer conference on November 6. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI who left the board in 2018, seems to be positioning his new product as a more affordable alternative to ChatGPT, which is priced at $20 per month.