Elon Musk Startup xAI Launches App Offering Access to Grok Chatbot

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI has launched a stand-alone consumer app called Grok that offers access to the company’s chatbot of the same name.

Grok Beta for iOS offers access to xAI’s latest model, Grok 2, for free, according to its description in Apple’s App Store.

“Grok is an AI-powered assistant, developed by xAI, designed to be maximally truthful, useful and curious,” the description said. “Get answers to any question, generate striking images, and upload pictures to gain a deeper understanding of your world.”

The app’s key features include image generation; real-time information powered by its access to current data from the web and Musk’s social media platform, X; an “engaging and humorous” conversational tone; and a focus on privacy, according to the description.

The chatbot was previously available only through X, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday (Jan. 9). The new app is available for free and doesn’t seem to have a subscription option, according to the report. Its description in Apple’s App Store suggested the product was in beta and was being released in the U.S.

The launch of the Grok app followed the December launch of a free version of the chatbot for all users on X, as PYMNTS reported Dec. 15.

“Over the past few weeks we have been quietly testing a new version of the Grok-2 model, which is three times faster and offers improved accuracy, instruction-following and multilingual capabilities,” xAI wrote in a Dec. 12 blog post.

The post added that while the new version is available to all users on X for free, Premium and Premium+ users get higher usage limits and first access to any new capabilities.

On Dec. 23, xAI announced that it raised $6 billion in a Series C funding round to support its development of advanced AI systems.

“The funds from this financing round will be used to further accelerate our advanced infrastructure, ship groundbreaking products that will be used by billions of people, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies enabling the company’s mission to understand the true nature of the universe,” xAI said in a Dec. 23 blog post.