X launches new AI tool called ‘Grok’ for US-based users

Despite its unique angle – being integrated into social media and pulling real-time information from X itself – tech experts aren’t sure that Grok will become the global go-to for AI-generated assistance.

At present, it is only available for X Premium+ subscribers which poses an immediate and obvious obstacle to its widespread use.

A subscription for X Premium+ costs $16 per month and $22 when purchased through app stores on iOS or Google Play, a price that many users of the platform have abstained from signing up for considering Twitter had been free for over a decade.

Grok is also only currently available to those located in the U.S. for now.

Entering the market with a paid-only option already sets it behind competitors such as ChatGPT, Claude, Poe, and Perplexity which all offer free plans alongside paid, faster, and more comprehensive versions.

Not to mention, most users may need a window of time to adapt to using X as a ‘functional’ assistant.

Those who have been signed up since the days of Twitter will be more used to using ‘search’ features to find tweets about topics of their choice, as well as searching for other users to connect with on the platform.

At face value, the idea of having a bot that can spruce up tweets with factual information or topic-corresponding content does sound a little fun. Think ‘Quote Tweets’ but AI-generated.

Still, it’s hard not to reflect upon all the changes to Twitter in the last year.

A few that come to mind are the removal of headlines on shared links, the launch and subsequent scrapping of the ‘Circles feature’, and the weird rebrand itself.

It makes us wonder if this is just another Elon-coded move to transform a social media platform that was once simple, yet extremely effective into a messier version of itself.