Elon Musk’s xAI reportedly plans to launch a standalone app as soon as next month. xAI might have arrived late to the artificial intelligence (AI) space, but it has taken quick strides to close the gap. In the last two months, the AI firm released a function-calling capability within its large language models (LLMs), launched an application programming interface (API) for developers, and is reportedly testing a free version of the AI model. And now, a report claims that the company is planning to take on OpenAI with a ChatGPT-like app.
Elon Musk’s xAI to Reportedly Get a Standalone App
The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk is aiming to build Grok AI as an independent product. Citing people familiar with the matter, the publication claimed that xAI might soon launch a standalone chatbot app for Grok, similar to ChatGPT.
Currently, Grok AI can only be accessed via X (formerly known as Twitter) and is available to the X Premium and Premium+ subscribers. Recently, a report claimed that xAI is planning to release a free version of the AI model. The standalone app could be part of the same plan.
The plans for a new app along with API for developers point towards Musk’s ambitions of creating new avenues of revenue generation through its AI offerings. Notably, to lure developers, the company even announced incentives in terms of free tokens. The plan seems to be about bringing Grok to as many people as possible and have other software and apps powered by its capabilities.
The WSJ report also claimed that Musk’s larger aim is to rival OpenAI and offer its products and services as a viable alternative in every space ChatGPT occupies. However, Grok lacks several features such as native image generation, voice support, and agentic AI capabilities, something major rivals such as Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and others are already offering.
Musk’s rivalry with OpenAI is not new. Notably, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI earlier this year for violating its contract to stay nonprofit. The ChatGPT-maker responded to the allegations by calling it “baseless and overreaching.”
The report also highlighted that xAI has two significant advantages over other AI chatbots. First, Grok is exclusively trained on the public posts on X, which means the chatbot can interact in a more natural language and has access to more up-to-date information compared to other LLMs. Second, Musk is using Tesla to train the xAI models.
However, whether these advantages translate into user adoption and revenue generation can only be gauged in the future.