Elon Musk says Grok Bot is like hiring an incredibly competent employee, quoting a Rothmus post urging people to use it

Context

This is promotion: Musk's company makes Grok Bot, and he quoted a post from the account Rothmus that calls using it a public service announcement. Neither post describes a specific task or new feature.

Deep dive

On October 18, Elon Musk posted: Grok @Bot is like hiring an incredibly competent employee. He was quoting a post from the account Rothmus earlier that afternoon that read: Use Grok @Bot. This is a public service announcement.

The Rothmus post includes an anime style illustration of a teal skinned character with pointed ears and an X emblem on its chest, standing on a ledge under a blue sky in front of a torn green flag with a large ring shaped emblem, flanked by small round characters in gray, blue, orange, black, green and brown. The post does not explain the image.

Musk's post passed 850,000 views by that evening. It was one of several Grok Bot posts he shared on October 18. Earlier that day he quoted Brian Roemmele's post about a Grok Bot that phones restaurants, writing that Grok @Bot can call restaurants by phone and book you a table, and quoted Teslaconomics' post about the bot ordering a toy, writing: Try Grok @Bot.

Musk did not say what tasks he had in mind, and the comparison to an employee is his own characterization. User accounts so far describe errands such as booking tables, placing orders, tracking refunds and negotiating bills, none of which have been independently verified.

What to expect next

Watch whether xAI follows the promotion with new Grok Bot features, such as built in phone calling or payment cards, which users have been asking for.

Also watch usage figures, if xAI shares them, and whether more businesses restrict agents as Grok Bot is pushed toward shopping and errands. Reports of mistakes or security problems would test the claim that it works like a competent employee.