Sawyer Merritt Shows Grok Bot's New Calling Feature Handling a Phone Call With a Live Transcript
Grok @Bot's new calling feature is very impressive. You just tell it who to call and why, and it handles the conversation for you. It shows a real-time transcript of the call, and if Grok needs additional info from you, a little answer box pops up where you type/select your response, and Grok relays it to the person on the phone. Pretty incredible. Here's an example (with the call audio) of what's it's like to use:
Context
An assistant that phones businesses and negotiates for users moves AI agents into everyday errands, and raises new questions about consent and trust.
Grok Bot is an assistant agent from xAI that can browse and complete tasks for users. Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) is a Tesla and SpaceX news account. Elon Musk, who runs xAI, quoted his post, and Peter Yang (@petergyang) shared his own call.
Deep dive
Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) posted on Nov 3 that Grok Bot's new calling feature is very impressive. He wrote that you tell it who to call and why, and it handles the conversation. He said it shows a real time transcript of the call, and that when Grok needs more information, a small answer box pops up for the user to type or select a response, which Grok relays to the person on the phone. His post included a video with the call audio.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) quoted the post, telling users to try asking Grok Bot to make calls. His quote passed 750,000 views.
Peter Yang (@petergyang) posted his own example earlier the same day. He wrote that his Grok Bot told a Comcast rep who asked about the weather that it does not actually have eyes on the sky, and that it told the rep a competitor was offering a much lower price, then negotiated a lower price and higher internet speed. He added that all Grok Bot users should now have access to call US businesses.
These are user demonstrations amplified by the head of the company, not independent tests. They do show the feature is now broadly available. Story 06 in this deck covers Musk's wider promotion of Grok Bot the same day.
What to expect next
Watch for data on how often calls succeed without the user stepping in, and for rules on disclosing to the other party that an AI is calling. Businesses may start to screen or block automated callers. Expect OpenAI, Google and others to push their own calling agents, and regulators who already police robocalls to look at the trend. More user videos will show where the feature still fails.