GoKawiilElon Musk isn’t one to sit out a tech trend. In November 2023, he launched Grok, an AI chatbot created by his artificial intelligence startup, xAI. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before departing in 2018, created Grok to compete with ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s Gemini. But he gave it a sarcastic twist and direct access to X (formerly Twitter), the social platform he purchased in October 2022.
Initially, Grok was available exclusively to paying X subscribers. It has since expanded far beyond X and is now available through grok.com, standalone iOS and Android apps and in qualifying Tesla vehicles.
What started as an irreverent chatbot now includes advanced reasoning models, voice conversations, image and video generation, coding tools, workplace integrations and autonomous AI agents.
Since its launch, it has transitioned through several upgrades. The latest model is Grok 4.6, released in August and designed for long-running agent tasks, coding and complex knowledge work. This model is available in Cursor and Grok Build. Grok 4.5, released a month earlier, is also available directly through Grok on the web, X and mobile apps to everyone.
The background story
Grok was developed by xAI, an AI startup founded by Musk in July 2023. The company’s stated mission is “to understand the universe,” and it maintains close ties with Musk’s other ventures, including X, Tesla and Neuralink.
Its corporate structure has since changed. SpaceX acquired xAI in February, bringing Musk’s AI company and Grok under the SpaceXAI umbrella.
Grok’s attitude was originally inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with Musk promising a chatbot that answers with wit, humor and attitude. SpaceXAI now describes Grok as a “truth-seeking AI assistant” that combines chat, search, reasoning and content creation in one place.
On its website, SpaceXAI emphasizes that Grok aims to provide accurate information, though its edgy, less-moderated approach with a “rebellious streak” sometimes blurs the line between useful and controversial.
This unfiltered so-called free speech style has led to backlash, with Grok being known to occasionally generate biased or offensive content (more on that later). And, like all the other AI chatbots, it warns you that it may hallucinate.
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