Grok, xAI’s star-crossed chatbot, is coming to Tesla Inc. vehicles by “next week at the latest,” Elon Musk said Thursday.
“Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon. Next week at the latest,” Musk wrote on social-platform X hours after xAI debuted Grok 4 during an hour-long livestream in which he called the latest iteration a “post-grad level in everything.”
“Grok 4 is better than PhD level in every subject, no exceptions,” Musk said during the livestream, though he acknowledged the chatbot at times “may lack common sense.” (Grok 4 outperforms the latest models from rivals Google and OpenAI, based on Artificial Analysis’ intelligence benchmarks, but lacks their speed.)
Musk did not say if Grok is coming to all Tesla cars or if it will be slowly integrated into vehicles as part of an update. Since the chatbot debuted in 2023, Musk has hinted it would become Tesla’s in-car voice assistant.
Tesla had no comment on Thursday’s pre-announcement.
If and when Grok is incorporated into Tesla, it will find itself in a marketing game of catch-up.
Despite Musk’s status as co-founder of OpenAI, as Tesla’s CEO his car maker is behind in the race among automakers to integrate AI services. Larger rivals Ford Motor Co., Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis already equip some of their models with ChatGPT-based systems. Chinese automakers, meanwhile, have also rolled out AI assistants.
Musk’s Grok ambitions for Tesla follow a controversy-tainted week for the chatbot and xAI.
On Wednesday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino abruptly quit after two years on the job in the wake of an embarrassing series of posts by Grok on X. The chatbot on Tuesday posted antisemitic and pro-Hitler comments and referred to itself as “MechaHitler” before correcting itself with subsequent posts. The offending comments were removed from X following complaints from users and the Anti-Defamation League.
xAI temporarily paused Grok and vowed to prevent similar incidents. “We’re aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,” xAI said, adding that it’s training Grok to be more “truth-seeking.”
Several weeks earlier, Musk upbraided Grok for what he then claimed were left-wing narratives and promised to “fix” those responses, though they proved to be accurate.
