Social platform X, formerly Twitter, has added news summaries generated by Grok, the chatbot of Elon Musk’s xAI, exclusively for Premium subscribers. The personalized trending “Stories” appear in the For You tab of the app’s Explore section. The feature is available on the web and for iOS users for now. For You consists of trending items shared across the platform and within individual networks, along with recommended posts. Grok essentially becomes the voice of X’s news aggregator, teasing articles with short blurbs that link to what X users are saying on the subject. Critics are concerned about Grok’s tone, interpretation of information, and potential for creating fake news.

TechCrunch calls For You “among the first stops for X users who want to catch up with what’s being said on the platform, without having to spend long amounts of time scrolling their timeline.”

TechCrunch says a For You page “may feature stories about Apple’s coming iPad event, Microsoft’s security overhaul, and burnout among AI engineers. As you tap into each story to view the associated X posts, a summary of the story will now appear at the top of the page, offering an overview of the subject matter.”

If Grok’s spin on current events picks up traction, it could lure more paying customers. When xAI announced in November it was beginning to roll out its first large language model, Grok, with chat capabilities, it came with a warning: Grok would be distinguished by sarcasm and wit, “so please don’t use it if you hate humor,” xAI advised.

The example cited by TechCrunch carries a disclaimer the outlet calls humorous: “Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.” Social Media Today says “recently, X’s Grok AI system misinterpreted criticism of NBA star Klay Thompson’s shooting woes (chucking bricks) as Thompson going on a vandalism spree. Which is funny, and most simply saw the humorous side of the mistake.”

But X’s announcement sounds serious. “Now available: Stories on X, powered by Grok AI. See what the world is talking about with Stories on X, curated by @grok” reads a post by the X engineering department.

Social Media Today calls the Grok news “good in some ways,” specifically in saving time going through posts in a topic stream. “It’ll also probably save you having to click through to a website to read more about the issue in-depth,” the outlet says, offering an insight that may give publishers pause. OpenAI and Alphabet are being sued by media outlets who object to their use of protected IP.

Related:
Elon Musk’s Grok Keeps Making Up Fake News Based on X Users’ Jokes, Ars Technica, 4/18/24
Uh-Oh, X’s Grok AI Can Now ‘Understand’ Images, Mashable, 4/13/24
Elon Musk Has AI-Generated News Now and It’s Already Led to Plenty of Blunders, Quartz, 4/22/24