Grok isn't just for X anymore. The 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 Anthropic's Claude.
The app runs on the same Grok-2 AI model that powers its X-based counterpart. The chatbot can rewrite and summarize text, answer queries, and generate images from text prompts. For those in search of up-to-date information, Grok can access real-time data from both the web and X. Though 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 plenty of users. xAI has touted Grok's photorealistic rendering skills using the Flux AI model and its ability to analyze photos you upload, explaining whatever objects are captured by your phone's camera. The app may also end up using the Aurora image model that xAI apparently accidentally released very briefly before removing it.
For better or worse, the AI's image creation abilities have also led to some debates around copyright and ownership. Some have gotten in trouble for making copyrighted characters like Mario do things Nintendo doesn't approve of, leading to its copyright infringement hunter Tracer going after them for infringement.
Grok’s launch outside X represents more than just a feature expansion; it’s how xAI aims to take at least some of those paying for ChatGPT and other AI chatbots. The company clearly hopes to make a bigger product ecosystem where people pay for X to get Grok or pay for Grok to get access to X's premium features.
