Grok isn’t just for X anymore. AI chatbot built by Elon Musk’s xAI company has debuted an iOS mobile app in the US, Australia, India and several other countries. The app marks xAI’s ambition to compete against AI chatbot rivals with their own standalone apps, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Anthropics Claude.
The app runs on the same Grok-2 AI model that powers its X-based counterpart. The chatbot can paraphrase and summarize text, answer queries and generate images from text prompts. For those looking for up-to-date information, Grok can access real-time data from both the web and X. Although originally exclusive to X’s paying subscribers, Grok now offers a free tier and became more accessible with the launch of Grok. com as its own website.
Mobile Grok
Grok’s image generation feature is likely to entice many users. xAI has touted Grok’s photorealistic rendering capabilities using the Flux AI model and its ability to analyze images you upload and explain what objects are captured by your phone’s camera. The app may also end up using the Aurora image model, which xAI apparently accidentally released very briefly before removing it.
For better or worse, AI’s image creation abilities have also led to some debates around copyright and ownership. Some have gotten into trouble for making copyrighted characters like Mario do things Nintendo doesn’t approve of, leading to their copyright infringement hunter Tracer going after them for infringement.
Grok’s launch outside of X represents more than just a feature expansion; this is how xAI aims to take at least some of those who pay for ChatGPT and other AI chatbots. The company clearly hopes to create a larger product ecosystem where people pay for X to get Grok or pay for Grok to access X’s premium features. Whether it can outshine its rivals remains to be seen, but a slim one
