Elon Musk's xAI releases its first API, priced "boldly," implying new models will be integrated

Author: Du Yu

Source: Hard AI

On Monday, October 21st, Musk posted on his social media platform X that his artificial intelligence startup xAI's first API is now online, fulfilling Musk's promise made in August.

API stands for Application Programming Interface. xAI's API supports function calls, allowing the company's flagship generative AI model Grok to be connected to external tools such as databases and search engines. The Grok model also supports many features on X.

Some analysts have pointed out that xAI's first API is not yet perfect, as it only contains a model called "Grok-Beta" (beta version), which belongs to the Grok-2 version released in August. The Grok-2 Mini version, which is lower cost and lightweight, is still inaccessible.

xAI has claimed that Grok-2 is its cutting-edge language model with the most advanced reasoning capabilities, showing significant improvements in chat, programming, and reasoning functions compared to the previous Grok-1.5 version. Some tests have shown better performance than Amazon's supported Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4-Turbo.

The pricing of xAI's API is $5 per million input tokens (approximately 750,000 words) and $15 per million output tokens. Some netizens have described it as a "bold pricing model" due to its high prices.

The API documentation reserves a space for Grok-2 Mini, which is currently unavailable possibly due to technical issues. The document also includes a blank section for embedding models, hinting at future versions that may involve visual models for analyzing text and images.

Some tech media outlets have found that some X users have reported issues when using API points for payment and when trying to log in to the API console.

Supporters optimistic about xAI believe that the bold pricing model of the Grok API has sparked developers' curiosity about its capabilities. Function calls can achieve powerful integration with tools like databases, potentially changing the way companies utilize AI. The release of the API itself aims to completely transform AI interactions on X ![] (https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/f574202f-f7a3-4478-a069-ac683759232d.jpeg)

Another netizen summarized the AI new product trends of the week, stating that Microsoft launched an AI agent, deepening competition with Salesforce. The xAI API is now available to everyone:

"Rumors have it that Anthropic may also release some AI agents. OpenAI may respond to Anthropic's new feature releases as usual (definitely stealing the limelight). Perplexity's MacOS desktop application is about to be launched. Ideogram's canvas feature has been confirmed for release. Google Gemini will release something as usual."

xAI is working hard to catch up with strong competitors supported by Microsoft such as OpenAI and Google-supported Anthropic to stand out in the generative AI competition. In May of this year, xAI raised $6 billion under the lead of renowned investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Fidelity Management & Research Company, with a valuation soaring to $24 billion.

Musk once said that compared to competitors, the data on X gives xAI an absolute advantage. This month, X changed its privacy policy to allow third parties, including xAI, to use user posts on X to train models. Musk also hopes that the Grok model can be trained based on data from his various companies including Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company.

The media has described the Grok model as having a "Musk-like rebellious personality," willing to answer "sharp questions that most other AI systems refuse to answer," such as providing profanity and vulgar language based on prompts.

Grok has also become an indispensable part of the social media X experience, capable of generating images, summarizing news and hot events, but often making mistakes. Nio may enhance X's search, account profiles, post analysis, and reply functions