- Telegram is including xAI’s Grok chatbot to its app
- Grok might be embedded into chat options just like the search bar and pinned chats
- The deal has xAI paying Telegram $300 million to turn out to be part of the app
Telegram messages can have a sarcastic further presence now, because of a deal made by the messaging app to convey xAI’s Grok chatbot to its platform.
xAI’s flagship chatbot is understood for a snarkier – and sometimes unhinged – method to person interactions. That perspective will now be obtainable to all customers, having beforehand been restricted to some premium Telegram customers.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov shared a video on X displaying how customers will be capable of pin Grok to the highest of chats, summon it from the search bar, and use it to do all kinds of actions; from writing messages and summarizing group chats to creating stickers, answering trivia, and even serving as a moderator in neighborhood teams.
Elon Musk’s AI firm signed a cope with Telegram to embed Grok as a function all through the platform, paying $300 million for the privilege. Telegram can also be getting 50% of the income from any Grok subscriptions bought by the app, which may flip this into one of the crucial profitable crossovers in chatbot historical past.
🔥 This summer time, Telegram customers will achieve entry to one of the best AI know-how available on the market. @elonmusk and I’ve agreed to a 1-year partnership to convey xAI’s @grok to our billion+ customers and combine it throughout all Telegram apps 🤝💪 This additionally strengthens Telegram’s monetary… pic.twitter.com/ZPK550AyRVMay 28, 2025
Grok at work
If this all sounds vaguely acquainted, that’s as a result of it sounds so much like Meta’s technique for Meta AI. The AI assistant has turn out to be a part of Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp in a similar way to Grok in Telegram. Grok serves as Telegram’s reply to Meta AI, encouraging folks to remain on the platform moderately than look elsewhere for assist from an AI supply.
The $300 million being paid by xAI could sound over-the-top, but it surely is smart when you think about what xAI will get out of it. Telegram is without doubt one of the most-used messaging apps on the planet. Getting even a fraction of the greater than 900 million month-to-month energetic Telegram customers to attempt Grok could be an enormous boon for the chatbot. And that is not even contemplating the worth of the information Grok will get from Telegram customers. It is a huge pool of real-time interplay information, which may gasoline Grok’s growth in methods xAI is keen to pursue.
Since the actual energy of AI information comes from how actual folks work together, $300 million may find yourself being a cut price. Grok can be taught so much from what a whole bunch of tens of millions of individuals ask, how they phrase issues, and what tone they use, relying on whether or not they’re pleased, mad, flirty, or confused. xAI now has a front-row seat to that information firehose.
Naturally, the Grok integration will elevate a couple of eyebrows when questions of privateness, information possession, and the way our information is used are introduced up. Neither xAI nor Telegram has supplied a lot element about how Grok will deal with person information or whether or not any of that information might be used to additional practice the mannequin, which one should assume would be the case.
Grok could turn out to be the useful assistant it is pitched as, or it might be one other function that individuals Google how you can flip off, identical to Meta AI. There’s additionally the query of moderation.
Durov demonstrated how Grok may assist clear up spammy group chats, however Grok’s tone would seemingly conflict with a Telegram group discussing delicate points, and issues may go very incorrect if Grok misinterprets the context in a heated argument.
