Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI launched a Grok app as it seeks to catch up to rivals like Google and OpenAI.
Grok, the name of xAI’s flagship chatbot that can be used via Musk’s social media platform X, was available as a standalone app in Apple’s App Store on Thursday morning.
Apple users were able to download and use the Grok app for free. There did not appear to be a subscription version immediately available.
A representative for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk’s xAI launched the Grok chatbot on X last month for free. Premium and Premium+ X users who paid for a subscription had higher usage limits for the chatbot.
Apple’s description of the Grok app called it a “beta” product, indicating it’s an early version of the app. The app had more than 100 ratings by Friday afternoon and an average rating of nearly five stars.
Musk has slammed OpenAI’s wildly-popular ChatGPT as being too politically correct and, prior to launch, referred to his own AI model as “TruthGPT.”
He has since boasted that Grok has access to the latest information because of its ties to X.
“Launching a stand-alone app gives it a chance to build a broader audience, beyond X users,” Meghana Dhar, a former Snap and Instagram executive, told The Wall Street Journal.
While a separate app could draw users away from X, Dhar said it’s likely not a major concern.
“I think there’s more stickiness to X users than that,” she told the Journal. “X users are very loyal to the platform.”
Musk launched xAI in 2023 to compete with OpenAI as ChatGPT became a roaring success. He quickly raised billions of dollars from investors and built a massive data center in Tennessee.
The world’s richest person — 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, cut ties with the firm in 2018.
He is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Altman as he tries to block OpenAI from pursuing a for-profit structure.
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