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Following Elon Musk\u2019s xAI\u2019s move to open source its Grok large language model<\/a> earlier in March, the X owner on Tuesday said that the company formerly known as Twitter will soon offer the Grok chatbot to more paying subscribers. In a post on X<\/a>, Musk announced Grok will become available to Premium subscribers this week, not just those on the higher-end tier, Premium+, as before.<\/p>\n The move could signal a desire to compete more directly with other popular chatbots, like OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT or Anthropic\u2019s Claude. But it could also be an indication that X is trying to bump up its subscriber figures. The news arrives at a time when data indicates that fewer people are using the X platform, and it\u2019s struggling to retain those who are. According to recent data from Sensor Tower, reported by NBC News,<\/a> X usage in the U.S. was down 18% year-over-year as of February, and down 23% since Musk\u2019s acquisition.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s war on advertisers<\/a> may have also hurt the company\u2019s revenue prospects, as Sensor Tower found that<\/a> 75 out of the top 100 U.S. advertisers on X from October 2022 no longer spent ad budget on the platform.<\/p>\n Offering access to an AI chatbot could potentially prevent X users from fleeing to other platforms \u2014 like decentralized platforms Mastodon and Bluesky, or Instagram\u2019s Threads, which rapidly gained traction thanks to Meta\u2019s resources to reach over 130 million monthly users<\/a> as of the fourth quarter 2023.<\/p>\n Musk didn\u2019t say when Grok would become available to X users, only that it \u201cwould be enabled\u201d for all Premium subscribers sometime \u201clater this week.\u201d<\/p>\n X Premium is the company\u2019s mid-tier subscription<\/a> starting at $8 per month (on the web) or $84 per year. Previously, Grok was only available to Premium+ subscribers, at $16 per month or a hefty $168 per year.<\/p>\n Grok\u2019s chatbot may appeal to Musk\u2019s followers and heavy X users as it will respond to questions about topics that are typically off-limits to other AI chatbots<\/a>, like conspiracies or more controversial political ideas. It will also answer questions with \u201ca rebellious streak,\u201d as Musk has described it. Most notably, Grok has the ability to access real-time X data \u2014 something rivals can\u2019t offer.<\/p>\n Of course, the value of that data under Musk\u2019s reign may be diminishing if X is losing users.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n