Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has launched the Grok app in a bid to catch up with rivals like Google and OpenAI.
Grok is the name of xAI's flagship chatbot, which can be used via Musk's social media platform X, and became available as a standalone app in Apple's App Store on Thursday morning.
Apple users could download and use the Grok app for free. There doesn't seem to be a subscription version available out of the box.
A representative for Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk's xAI released its Grok chatbot on X for free last month. Premium and Premium+ X users who have paid a subscription have higher chatbot usage limits.
Apple's description of the Grok app calls it a “beta” product, indicating that this is an early version of the app. The app had more than 100 ratings by Friday afternoon, with an average rating of nearly five stars.
Musk has criticized OpenAI's wildly popular ChatGPT as being too politically correct, calling his AI model “TruthGPT” before launching it.
Since then, he has boasted that Grok has access to the latest information thanks to his connection with X.
“Launching a standalone app gives us the opportunity to reach a broader audience beyond X users,” said Meghana Dhar, a former Snap and Instagram executive. wall street journal.
Another app could drive users away from X, but that's likely not a big concern, Dahl said.
“I think the obsession with X users goes beyond that,” she told WSJ. “X number of users are very loyal to the platform.”
ChatGPT was so successful that Musk launched xAI in 2023 to compete with OpenAI. He quickly raised billions of dollars from investors and built a massive data center in Tennessee.
The world's richest man, with a net worth of $413.2 billion, according to Forbes, is a longtime rival of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk, one of OpenAI's co-founders, severed ties with the company in 2018.
He is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Altman, who is trying to stop OpenAI from pursuing a commercial structure.
