Elon Musk’s xAI is quietly taking over X

The Unconventional Union of xAI and X

Musk’s AI Ambitions

When Elon Musk launched his own AI startup, xAI, he touted a key advantage over his competitors: access to the vast trove of data from his newly acquired social media platform Twitter. By implementing new API fees on the network, now renamed X, Musk locked out other AI companies, maintaining exclusive access for his own models. And he began using X’s millions of users to test the results.

New AI Features Coming to X

Musk has been using this distribution channel since xAI launched its first version of the Grok large language model, adding features like trending story summaries and AI-generated questions on posts. The chatbot is also releasing the Grok chatbot (initially) to X users exclusively. Now, a slew of new AI features is coming. Per the findings of reverse engineer Nima Owji, the platform appears to be developing AI-powered post enhancements, including a feature that lets Grok modify your tweets. The chatbot also appears to be adding location-based queries, letting users ask about things nearby, like grocery stores.

xAI’s Takeover of X

xAI’s takeover of the platform once known as Twitter is so unmistakable that even its branding has crept into X’s most visible real estate, with "xAI Grok" now commanding prominent placement in the app’s main toolbar – a striking symbol of how Musk’s AI ambitions have come to dominate the social network. An xAI employee poked fun at their company’s expanding presence, sharing an image of X’s timeline overrun with the xAI logo.

The Complex Relationship Between xAI and X

The relationship between X and xAI is complex, with varying levels of collaboration between their teams. While Musk holds separate meetings with both X and xAI engineers, the extent of day-to-day cooperation between the companies remains unclear. For six months, xAI brought on ex-Meta and Discord product leader Nikita Bier to guide AI implementation on X’s platform, including the addition of AI-generated questions to posts – notably, Bier worked exclusively with xAI, rarely engaging with X’s team.

The Funding Structure

The funding raised for xAI is separate from what is raised for X, a setup that highlights their stark difference in value. xAI has seen meteoric growth, reportedly securing a $50 billion valuation and effectively doubling its worth in mere months. Meanwhile, X has struggled to maintain value. Its most recent employee stock grants in October 2023 valued the company at $19 billion, less than half of Musk’s $44 billion purchase price.

The Benefits and Drawbacks

While xAI benefits tremendously from its link to X, it’s unclear whether X users have benefited much from xAI. Not long after X rolled out the Grok-powered Stories feature, it began spitting out garbage: it produced headlines that claimed Vice President Kamala Harris was shot after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump; misunderstood a bunch of shitposts about New York Mayor Eric Adams, saying he deployed 50,000 police officers to an earthquake; and erroneously claimed in an AI-generated headline "Iran Strikes Tel Aviv with Heavy Missiles."

Conclusion

Despite the unconventional entangling of the two companies, it’s unlikely that the two will fully merge anytime soon. The ideology behind xAI is the familiar starry-eyed futurism that runs deep in the tech scene: open-source superintelligence, meteoric growth, and SpaceX-level dominance in AI (or, at least, that’s what Musk pitched at an xAI recruiting party a few months ago). It’s exactly the kind of audacious moonshot that makes Silicon Valley’s top talent and deepest pockets lean forward in their chairs.

FAQs

Q: Do you work at xAI or X?
I’d love to chat. You can reach me securely on Signal @kylie.01 or via email at kylie@theverge.com.

Q: What is the current state of the relationship between xAI and X?
The relationship is complex, with varying levels of collaboration between their teams.

Q: How does the funding structure work for xAI and X?
The funding raised for xAI is separate from what is raised for X, with xAI seeing meteoric growth and X struggling to maintain value.

Q: What are the benefits and drawbacks of the union between xAI and X?
While xAI benefits from its link to X, it’s unclear whether X users have benefited much from xAI.