The Grok AI chatbot, which was previously going to be exclusive to X’s top-tier Premium+ subscribers, will instead be coming to all premium subscribers this week.
The move is likely geared to boosting revenue in the face of falling usage and an exodus of advertisers, but it’s leading some Premium+ subscribers to question what they are now getting for their money …
X premium tiers
After initially launching a single premium subscription, X now offers three paid tiers:
- Premium Basic, at $3/month
- Premium, at $8/month
- Premium+, at $16/month
Despite costing twice as much, Premium+ offers very little you don’t get on Premium. Premium+ shows no ads in the For You and Following timelines, but you still see sponsored posts elsewhere.
This feature does not apply to promoted content elsewhere on X, including but not limited to ads on profiles, ads in post replies, ads in Immersive Media Viewer, promoted events in Explore, promoted trends, and promoted accounts to follow.
The other feature exclusive to the top tier is Articles, which allows subscribers to share long-form content on X should they think of some reason to do so.
Grok AI chatbot
The Grok chatbot is intended to compete with ChatGPT and Claude, and works in the same way. The main differentiator is intended to be the bot’s ‘personality,’ with Musk describing it as possessing “wit” and “a rebellious streak.”
Grok also appears to have fewer safeguards than other generative AI models, meaning it may be willing to discuss riskier topics.
Access to the Grok AI chatbot was set to be a third benefit of Premium+, but Elon Musk has now tweeted that it’s coming to other paid subscribers too. It’s not immediately clear whether that includes Premium Basic, but that does appear to be the implication.
Later this week, Grok will be enabled for all premium subscribers (not just premium+)
TechCrunch suggests that Musk has made the decision to try to boost paid subscriptions at a time when the company is struggling for revenue. Most of the platform’s top advertisers are reported to have left, and there are fewer eyeballs on the remaining ads.
X usage in the U.S. was down 18% year-over-year as of February, and down 23% since Musk’s acquisition [and] Sensor Tower found that 75 out of the top 100 U.S. advertisers on X from October 2022 no longer spent ad budget on the platform.
9to5Mac’s Take
A chatbot with fewer safety measures on what it will discuss, a sassier tone, overseen by Musk, and intended to boost revenue; what could possibly go wrong?
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