xAI unveils "Grok" — early access begins for X Premium+ subscribers

xAI, founded by Elon Musk, has unveiled its own large language model “Grok-1” and the chatbot “Grok” built on it. It launched first as an early access program for paying X (formerly Twitter) Premium+ subscribers, marking xAI’s first publicly available product.

Details

• Availability: Launched as an early access program limited to paying X Premium+ subscribers
• Development timeline: xAI itself described it as “the best that could be done in two months of training,” positioning it as an early beta-quality model
• Features: Emphasized access to real-time information on X and a somewhat sardonic, “rebellious” response style
• Future direction: xAI stated it would “improve rapidly week over week,” making clear the release was meant to be followed by continuous updates

What happened next

About a month after this early access launch, on December 7, 2023, Grok became available to all X Premium+ subscribers on both web and app. The following March, Grok-1’s model weights were released as open source, and xAI went on to rapidly expand both its models and products from this first step.