Elon Musk is offering users of his social media platform free access to his artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
“Over the past few weeks we have been quietly testing a new version of the Grok-2 model, which is three times faster and offers improved accuracy, instruction-following, and multilingual capabilities,” Musk’s xAI wrote in a recent company blog post.
“Today we are excited to announce that we are beginning to roll out this new version of Grok-2 to all users on X for free. As always, Premium and Premium+ users get higher usage limits and will be the first to access any new capabilities in the future,” the blog post added.
Grok-2 launched in August, and since then, the company said, xAI has added new features for X users such as web search, citations, and its image generator, Aurora.
The company also launched something called the Grok button, a new feature appearing on posts across users’ home timeline. This button is designed to help users discover relevant context, understand real-time events, and delve deeper into trending discussions.
xAI was recently valued at $50 billion — up from $24 billion during the spring — following a $5 billion funding round.
The company is also involved in a legal battle with OpenAI, as Musk tries to halt the AI standout from switching over to a for-profit entity.
In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the rise of extended reality (XR) devices like headsets and glasses, with companies like Google promising these tools will “transform how you watch, work and explore.”
Extended reality (XR) — an umbrella term covering virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) — continues to reshape how digital and physical worlds interact, that report noted.
Google’s XR operating system was created in collaboration with Samsung, an effort code-named “Project Moohan,” from the Korean word for “infinite.” It joins the ranks of other already-available XR headsets, like Meta’s Quest 3 headset and Orion AR glasses, the Apple Vision Pro headset and other products such as the XREAL Air AR glasses.
“On a fundamental level, the XR landscape presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for payments innovation. XR applications in gaming, eCommerce, healthcare, education, the workplace and beyond will all demand seamless and secure payment solutions that match the promise of these technologies,” PYMNTS wrote.
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