Musk's xAI Launches Stand-Alone AI App

 

"Elon Musk's artificial-intelligence startup, xAI, launched its first stand-alone consumer app, its latest step as the company tries to catch up with more established players such as OpenAI and Google in the generative AI race.

The app is called Grok, which is also the name of the AI language model developed by xAI. Users noticed the app in Apple's App Store early Thursday. Previously, users could only access the Grok chatbot, xAI's flagship product, through X, the social-media platform run by Musk.

On Thursday, users were able to start using the new Grok app free of charge. There didn't appear to be a subscription option in the version viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Through the X platform, xAI rolled out a free version of the Grok chatbot last month, though the company said that X users who pay for Premium and Premium+ subscriptions would get higher usage limits.

The description in Apple's App Store suggested the app was an early "beta" product and that it was being introduced to the U.S. "Introducing Grok Beta for iOS: get access to xAI's latest model, Grok 2, for free," it said.

Musk has declared xAI will create a less politically correct AI and has criticized competitors for being too "woke." 

He also has sought to distinguish Grok by saying it has the advantage of access to up-to-date information via the X platform.

"Launching a stand-alone app gives it a chance to build a broader audience, beyond X users," said Meghana Dhar, a former Snap and Instagram executive who is now a tech adviser.

While introducing a stand-alone app could draw users away from X, Dhar said she didn't think that was a major concern.

"I think there's more stickiness to X users than that," she said. "X users are very loyal to the platform."

Musk launched xAI in 2023 to compete with OpenAI, the ChatGPT developer he co-founded but later left after a power struggle. Musk raced to recruit talent, raise billions of dollars from investors and build a massive data center in Memphis, Tenn., to turn xAI into a competitive player in the AI industry.

xAI introduced the first version of its Grok chatbot four months after publicly launching the company in July 2023 and has released updated versions since." [1]

1. Musk's xAI Launches Stand-Alone AI App. Corse, Alexa.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Jan 2025: B4.