Following Elon Musk's xAI move to open source the Grok large-scale language model in early March, He said it would be available to subscribers.in Post to XMusk announced this week that Grok will be available to Premium subscribers, instead of just the high-end Premium+ subscribers as before.
The move may indicate a desire to compete more directly with other popular chatbots, such as OpemAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. But it could also indicate that X is trying to increase its subscriber base. The news comes at a time when data shows the number of people using the X platform is decreasing and the company is struggling to keep the number of people using it. According to recent data from Sensor Tower reported by NBC News, usage of X in the U.S. was down 18% year over year as of February, and down 23% since Musk's acquisition.
Mr. Musk's war on advertisers is compounding the company's war on advertisers, as Sensor Tower found that 75 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers on X have stopped spending ad budgets on the platform since October 2022. This may also have had a negative impact on earnings prospects.
Providing access to AI chatbots could prevent X users from fleeing to other platforms. These include decentralized platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, or Instagram's Threads. Thanks to Meta's resources, it quickly gained momentum and as of Q4 2023, the number of monthly users exceeds his 130 million.
Musk didn't say when Grok would be available to X users, only saying it would “be live” for all premium subscribers “later this week.”
X Premium is Company mid-tier subscription Starting at $8/month (on the web) or $84/year. Previously, Grok was only available to Premium+ subscribers and cost a hefty $16 per month or $168 per year.
Grok's chatbot could appeal to Musk's followers and heavy X users because it responds to questions about topics typically off-limits to other AI chatbots, such as conspiracies and controversial political ideas There is a gender. He will also respond to questions with a “defiant attitude,” as Musk described it. Most notably, Grok has the ability to access his X data in real time, a feature that rivals cannot offer.
Of course, if Company X is losing users, that data could become less valuable under Musk.