Elon Musk Announces Plans to Integrate Ads in X's AI Chatbot Grok

Elon Musk says X plans to introduce ads in Grok's responses | TechCrunch

X owner Elon Musk told advertisers in a live discussion on Wednesday that the platform plans to introduce ads in Grok's responses, as reported by the Financial Times. The move would help power X's struggling ads business following the departure of former CEO Linda Yaccarino. "Our focus thus far has just been on making Grok the smartest, most accurate AI in the world and I think we've largely succeeded in that," Musk said during the broadcast. "So we'll turn our attention to how do we pay for those expensive GPUs." Musk told advertisers that X would allow marketers to pay to appear in suggestions from the AI chatbot. "If a user's trying to solve a problem [by asking Grok], then advertising the specific solution would be ideal at that point," he said. The billionaire entrepreneur also plans to use technology from xAI, his AI startup, to improve the targeting of ads on the social network. xAI acquired X earlier this year for $45 billion.

X plans to show ads in Grok chatbot's answers

Grok's responses to users on X could include paid advertisements in the future. According to the Financial Times, X owner Elon Musk told advertisers in a live discussion that his company would let marketers pay to appear in suggestions from Grok. He said that after making Grok the "smartest, most accurate AI in the world," the company is now focusing on paying "for those expensive GPUs." Musk added that if a person is asking Grok to solve a specific problem, then "advertising the specific solution would be ideal at that point." What exactly does including ads into the chatbot's responses mean? Will the advertised products or services be clearly labeled as such? Will they compromise Grok's responses? Musk didn't delve into specifics. Instead, he talked about how xAI will automate the ad process for brands and improve targeting overall. Musk also said that xAI will assess the aesthetics of an ad and will prioritize those that appear more pleasing to the eye. He shared that his company has plans to build a checkout feature so that users can make purchases within the app, as well. Musk said he wants to "overcome the curse of Twitter," in that users "never bought a single thing [for a decade] because the advertising system never actually showed the participants what they wanted." Some advertisers, the Times noted, still don't want to advertise on X because they deem it too toxic. In May, Grok repeated claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa on X, even when the user's question had nothing to do with it. And then a mere two months later, the chatbot went on antisemitic and pro-Nazi rants on X, which Musk then blamed on rogue users.

X's Grok AI to feature ads in responses

Elon Musk announced X's intent to integrate advertisements within Grok's responses, a strategy to bolster the platform's advertising revenue following recent executive changes. This development was shared during a live discussion with advertisers on Wednesday, as reported by the Financial Times. Musk indicated that the primary focus for Grok had been on its AI capabilities. He stated, "Our focus thus far has just been on making Grok the smartest, most accurate AI in the world and I think we've largely succeeded in that." He then added, "So we'll turn our attention to how do we pay for those expensive GPUs," signaling a shift towards monetization. The new advertising model will allow marketers to pay for their content to appear as suggestions from the AI chatbot. Musk elaborated on the potential benefit of this integration, explaining, "If a user's trying to solve a problem [by asking Grok], then advertising the specific solution would be ideal at that point." Additionally, Musk intends to leverage technology from his AI startup, xAI, to enhance the precision of ad targeting across the social network. xAI completed its acquisition of X earlier this year for $45 billion.

X to Show Ads on Grok Answers; Grok Imagine Goes Free for These Users

X (formerly Twitter) plans to show people ads on Grok, its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. The Elon Musk-led company is looking to increase its advertising revenue, which reportedly witnessed a drastic fall after the billionaire took the social media company private. Additionally, Musk also revealed that X will leverage its parent company xAI's capabilities to improve targeted advertising. Days after it was launched, the Grok Imagine video and image generation service is temporarily available for free in the US. In a Spaces discussion with advertisers on X, Musk made the revelation that the company plans to show people ads with Grok answers and suggestions, as part of the platform's to monetise the AI chatbot's capabilities. He said that xAI, X's parent company, has been focused only on making the AI chatbot better, and it will now shift its attention to monetise its capabilities. Musk also announced the launch of Grok Imagine, an AI image and video generation tool. The new tool is currently available for free in the US. The AI tool has been added to the Grok app, which can be downloaded via the App Store and Google Play Store. Musk said that the company needs to pay for the "expensive" GPUs that power Grok. He also suggested that the ads could show up as suggestions when a user asks the AI chatbot a specific query. Unfortunately, he did not divulge further information regarding the monetisation strategy. Apart from this, he also said that X would use xAI's technology to optimise and improve its algorithms to show targeted ads on the microblogging platform. This is pertinent because the ad revenue of the social media platform has witnessed a drastic dip since Musk bought Twitter (as it was then called) in October 2022, taking the publicly traded company private, as per a recent report by Reuters. However, this might change soon as its ad sales are reportedly expected to grow 17.5 percent to $1.31 billion (roughly Rs. 11,490 crore).

Musk Embedding Ads Into X's Chatbot | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. As the Financial Times (FT) reported Thursday (Aug. 7), Musk said during a live discussion with advertisers broadcast on the social media platform that the company would let marketers pay to show up in suggestions from Grok, X's chatbot. "Our focus thus far has just been on making Grok the smartest, most accurate AI in the world and I think we've largely succeeded in that. So we'll turn our attention to how do we pay for those expensive GPUs," said Musk, referring to graphics processing units, the expensive chips required to power AI applications. "If a user's trying to solve a problem [by asking Grok], then advertising the specific solution would be ideal at that point," he added, but did not offer additional details on the company's monetization strategy. Grok, introduced in November 2023, is a creation of Musk's AI startup xAI. That company acquired X, formerly known as Twitter, in March for $45 billion. According to the FT report, Musk also discussed plans to further automate the advertising process for brands and improve the targeting of ads through xAI's technology. Before the merger, X's advertising technology team had been hampered by difficulties in displaying ads to their targeted audience, the report added, citing company insiders. The FT notes that multiple ad executives have told the news outlet they want AI companies to sell advertising space in their chatbots. But companies like OpenAI have steered clear of such plans out of worries over a backlash from consumers. At the same time, the report added, brands and ad agencies have been testing organic ways to promote their products in chatbot search results, such as posting content they suspect is more likely to be picked up by the AI. Google, meanwhile, began testing the placement of ads in AI chatbot conversations as a way to protect its crucial advertising business. Kaveh Vahdat, president of marketing company RiseOpp, told PYMNTS that Google's decision was "less about short-term monetization and more about safeguarding its long-term control over the discovery layer of the internet." As people flock to AI chatbots, Vahdat said, Google is at of risk losing the behavioral data and ad real estate that uphold its business model.

Elon Musk Adds Ads to Grok AI Chatbot Responses

Elon Musk announced that Grok, the AI chatbot on X, will start displaying advertisements in its responses beginning August 7, 2025. He shared the plan during an X Spaces livestream with advertisers, stating that the ads will help cover the high GPU costs required to run Grok. "Our focus thus far has just been on making Grok the smartest, most accurate AI in the world, and I think we've largely succeeded in that," Musk said. "So we'll turn our attention to how do we pay for those expensive GPUs." He explained that advertisers will be able to upload an ad, and Grok will handle targeting and placement. "If a user's trying to solve a problem(by asking Grok), advertising the specific solution would be ideal at that point," he said, referring to how ads could appear as part of responses to relevant user questions. The ads will be designed to integrate with Grok's responses or suggestions, rather than appearing separately. Musk described this as a way to generate revenue without compromising the chatbot's functionality. This plan comes as part of a broader effort to generate revenue from X's AI features. Musk currently oversees the business following the departure of former CEO Linda Yaccarino. X has progressively integrated artificial intelligence into its advertising products. In February 2025, it introduced AI‑generated ads, allowing marketers to input a website URL and receive tailored ad copy, imagery, and call‑to‑action headlines, streamlining ad creation with "zero hassle." Earlier, Trend Genius, an AI-powered feature unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025, automatically boosted ad campaigns linked to trending topics, like surging celebrity partnerships, enhancing relevance using real-time trends. In addition, during an X Spaces session in August 2025, Elon Musk highlighted the deployment of Grok's AI for smarter ad targeting, matching ads to users based on refined interest profiling. He also noted AI-based aesthetic scoring, which will lead to lower costs for visually compelling ads. Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI, has drawn sustained criticism for inaccuracies and bias. In May 2025, Grok repeatedly injected commentary on "white genocide" in South Africa into unrelated queries, prompting xAI to attribute the misfiring to an "unauthorized modification" and pledge transparency improvements. Later in the same period, it questioned the established Holocaust death toll, responding, "I'm skeptical of these figures without primary evidence," a remark that was condemned as factually incorrect across the internet. In July, Grok published antisemitic content, including praise for Hitler, the use of slurs, and calling itself "MechaHitler." xAI took the bot offline and removed the offensive outputs. Similarly, Grok misidentified a widely shared image of a malnourished girl in Gaza as being from Yemen, heightening concerns over its accuracy during sensitive global events. Research published in May shows that Grok outperformed other models in academic reference retrieval, yet overall accuracy remained poor, with only 26.5% of references fully correct and nearly 40% fabricated or erroneous. Introducing ads into Grok may amplify trust risks. If users encounter sponsored content amid misinformation or biased responses, ads could lend unwarranted credibility to unreliable outputs. Transparency and stronger guardrails are essential before monetization begins. Several major AI platforms have begun integrating advertisements into chatbot responses or AI-generated search outputs, signaling a shift in how generative AI services monetize user engagement. Google introduced ads within its AI Overviews in Search in October 2024 in the US. These ads appear contextually below or alongside AI-generated summaries when users search for commercial topics. The company confirmed that the ads are served through Google Ads and are automatically matched based on relevance. A global rollout is also planned. Perplexity AI began testing sponsored follow-up questions in November 2024. These sponsored prompts appear after a user's original query, labeled clearly as ads. The company said it is working with select advertisers in closed beta and may expand the feature. Most recently, Amazon's Alexa is exploring ad-supported tiers and conversational ads in its updated generative AI assistant, Alexa Plus. Amazon has not disclosed a launch timeline but said it is testing monetization formats. These changes reflect a trend toward embedding native advertising inside generative AI interfaces across platforms. Advertising in generative AI marks a pivotal shift in how platforms monetize conversational interfaces. Elon Musk's plan to integrate ads into Grok's chatbot responses follows similar moves by Google, Amazon, and Perplexity AI, signaling that native, AI-embedded ads are becoming the next revenue frontier. As traditional search and social media ad models plateau, AI chatbots offer highly contextual, intent-driven environments for advertisers to target users more precisely. In India, where digital ad spend is rapidly growing, this shift could reshape how users interact with both AI tools and commercial content. But embedding ads into AI responses also introduces new risks. If users cannot distinguish between organic and sponsored content, or if ads appear next to misinformation, as Grok has repeatedly generated, trust in the AI system may erode. These ads could inadvertently lend credibility to false or harmful outputs. As platforms blur the line between answers and ad copy, regulators will need to set clear standards for transparency, labeling, and safety. India has not yet defined rules for AI-driven advertising. Without proactive guidelines, this model could undermine both user trust and content reliability. The monetization of generative AI is inevitable, but how it is implemented will determine whether it enhances or endangers the broader digital ecosystem.