Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has launched its first AI model, Grok, which is designed to answer questions and have a sense of humor.

This illustration photograph taken on October 30, 2023, shows the the X (former Twitter) logo on a smartphone in Mulhouse, eastern France. (AFP)

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is getting a new app soon, while xAI will also be integrated into the official X (formerly Twitter) app. If and when it’s done, xAI’s integration into the social media giant will go a long way towards furthering Musk’s goal of an ‘everything app’

Musk revealed that xAI will be integrated into the official X app in response to a user’s post asking if the AI startup was planning to launch its own app, “It will both be built into the 𝕏 app and be available as a standalone app”

Musk’s ChatGPT competitor:

On Sunday, Musk launched xAI’s first AI model, Grok, to compete with other major programmes such as ChatGPT, Bard and Bing.

In a post while releasing Grok, the company said, “Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask!”

The AI chatbot is designed to have a bit of humour and what the company calls a “rebellious streak” in its responses. Musk demonstrated the humour part of the chatbot by showing a conversation in which Grok could be seen making jokes about FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried, and giving a sarcastic response to a question about how to make cocaine.

Grok is in early beta and is only available to a select number of users through the xAI early access programme, which is currently limited to X verified users. Musk has promised that Grok will be available to all X Premium+ users once it comes out of early beta.

Grok is still in its early stages, having been trained on a prototype large language model, Grok -0, with 33 billion parameters in its two months of training. However, the company expects Grok to improve over time thanks to the early access programme.