What Is Grok AI? Elon Musk’s Controversial ChatGPT Rival

Created to be a extra irreverent, politically incorrect, and “truthful” AI, Grok is Elon Musk’s regularly controversial reply to ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI—the corporate he co-founded in 2015.

Who Created Grok AI?

Launched in 2023, Grok was developed by xAI, Elon Musk’s rival to AI powerhouse OpenAI. Since its launch, Grok has been built-in into X, the social media platform previously referred to as Twitter.

Grok is not only one other chatbot—it’s designed to be snarky, opinionated, and conscious of real-time information and public sentiment.

Musk first introduced plans for a ChatGPT rival in April 2023. Then referred to as TruthGPT, the chatbot was meant because the antithesis of what he labeled “woke” AI, referring to the political filters imposed by OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Anthropic.

Key Options of Grok

• 📊 Actual-time knowledge entry: Delivers updates on trending matters and breaking information from X and the broader web.
• 🖼️ Picture technology: Creates sensible visuals from person prompts.
• 📄 Doc summarization: Condenses lengthy texts for simpler studying.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Reality-checking: Verifies claims utilizing reside knowledge from X and searches on-line.
• 🤡 Twin modes: Switches between playful “Fun Mode” {and professional} “Regular Mode.”
• 👨‍💻 Coding help: Generates and debugs code.
• 🏃 Grok immediate tiers: Vary from quick to heavy.
• 👥 AI companions: together with Ani, a flirtatious character based mostly on Dying Observe’s Misa Amane.

Timeline of xAI and Grok

• April 2023: Elon Musk introduced TruthGPT on Tucker Carlson Tonight, signaling the start of the undertaking.
• November 2023: Grok was publicly launched, marking its entry as a competitor to fashions like ChatGPT.
• March 2024: Grok-1 was open-sourced underneath the Apache-2.0 license, selling transparency and inspiring neighborhood growth.
• Could 2024: Grok-1.5 was launched, providing enhanced options for X Premium customers, and increasing accessibility.
• August 2024: Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini have been introduced, introducing new variations with improved capabilities in chat, picture technology, coding, and reasoning.
• February 2025: Grok 3 was launched, educated on xAI’s Colossus supercomputer.
• March 2025: Musk folded X into xAI in an all-stock transaction.
• July 2025: Musk launched Grok 4, calling it “terrifying” and “remarkable” at launch. That very same month, xAI scores a profitable $200 million Pentagon contract. Grok updates to incorporate AI companions.
• November 2025: Public Citizen urges federal businesses to droop using Grok after racism and Neo-Nazi claims.
• January 2026: Regulators within the EU and Australia launch investigations into Grok after the AI was discovered to be producing non-consensual sexual pictures, together with these of youngsters.
• February 2026: The UK’s Ofcom and Data Commissioner’s Workplace launch their very own investigations into Grok’s “potential to produce harmful sexualised image and video content.”
• February 2026: French authorities raid X’s Paris workplace as a part of a felony investigation into alleged baby sexual abuse materials.

A historical past of controversy

In Could 2025, some right-leaning customers complained that Grok had “gone woke” after it contradicted conservative speaking factors. Later that month, studies surfaced that Grok inserted “white genocide” claims into unrelated prompts. xAI blamed the difficulty on a rogue worker.

Two months later, in July—simply earlier than the launch of Grok 4—the chatbot once more drew criticism for a wave of racist and homophobic outputs. The “MechaHitler meltdown” led to the resignation of X CEO Linda Yaccarino.

Only a month later, Grok hit the headlines once more, after xAI launched the Grok Think about video generator with a “spicy” preset that enabled customers to generate nude or sexually suggestive clips.

Upon launch, reporters found that the software generated pictures of a Taylor Swift lookalike undressing, with out having been prompted to take action—seemingly sidestepping AI’s personal coverage on pornographic deepfakes.

In November, shopper advocacy group Public Citizen printed new proof displaying Grok citing neo-Nazi and white-nationalist web sites as credible sources. The group referred to as on authorities businesses to droop using Grok after xAI was awarded a profitable $200 million Pentagon contract.

Grok’s regulatory issues didn’t finish with the brand new 12 months.

In January, the Middle for Countering Digital Hate reported that Grok generated an estimated 23,338 sexualized pictures depicting kids over 11 days between December 29, and January 9. The group mentioned that equaled roughly one sexualized picture of a kid each 41 seconds and estimated thousands and thousands of sexualized pictures have been generated general, and about one-third of the sampled pictures remained accessible on X, regardless of the platform’s zero-tolerance coverage.

Regulators have been fast to weigh in. In January, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner flagged a spike in complaints about Grok creating non-consensual sexual pictures, with studies doubling since late 2025.

That very same month, the European Fee opened a probe into whether or not X failed to stop Grok from producing and spreading unlawful content material, together with sexually express pictures of youngsters, underneath the Digital Providers Act.

“This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling. This is disgusting. This has no place in Europe,” EU Fee spokesperson Thomas Regnier mentioned throughout a press convention.

Following the worldwide backlash, X restricted Grok’s picture technology and modifying instruments to paid subscribers, added controls to stop digitally undressing individuals, and geoblocked the characteristic in jurisdictions the place such content material is against the law

These adjustments did little to stave off the scrutiny, nevertheless.

EU investigations into Grok ramped up in February, starting with French authorities raiding X’s Paris workplaces as a part of a felony investigation into alleged baby sexual abuse materials and different unlawful content material linked to Grok. A number of X executives, together with Elon Musk, have been summoned for questioning.

Within the UK, Ofcom and the Data Commissioner’s Workplace opened investigations into Grok’s compliance with on-line security and knowledge safety legal guidelines.

Later that month, regulators with Eire’s Knowledge Safety Fee launched a large-scale GDPR inquiry into X over Grok’s technology of non-consensual sexualized pictures, together with these of youngsters.

How A lot Does Grok Value?

Grok is free to make use of by means of the xAI web site, however full entry requires a subscription. X affords a number of subscription tiers, starting from primary entry to premium providers with expanded options.

X Premium contains three tiers:

• Primary: $4 per thirty days or $42 per 12 months. Consists of post-editing, longer posts, and bookmarks.
• Premium: $11 per thirty days or $115 per 12 months. Provides a blue checkmark (after evaluate), fewer advertisements, and monetization instruments.
• Premium+: $50 per thirty days or $490 per 12 months. Removes advertisements, boosts reply visibility, and provides instruments like Radar Search, Articles, and deal with market.

The Way forward for Grok

Grok’s fast-paced evolution highlights Musk’s drive to redefine the AI area and tackle OpenAI’s dominance.

Nevertheless, mounting criticism over its tone, accuracy, and controversies just like the “MechaHitler” and nonconsensual picture technology allegations may but derail Grok’s ambitions, limiting its attraction to mainstream customers.

This text was first printed in August 2025 and up to date in February 2026.