Musk announces Baby Grok, kid-friendly version of his chatbot – What will this AI app do?

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday (Jul 20) announced plans to launch Baby Grok, a new kid-friendly version of his artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok. The application is expected to be a simplified version of Grok AI, developed by his AI startup xAI, and will be tailored for safe and educational content for children.

In a statement on X, the former head of DOGE wrote, “We’re going to make Baby Grok @xAI, an app dedicated to kid-friendly content.” Replying to another, Musk said that the chatbot is “inspired by Baby Groot,” a comic character from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

This comes shortly after his AI startup launched Grok4, which includes features like advanced training capabilities. “I think it may discover new technologies as soon as later this year. And I would be shocked if it has not done so next year. So I would expect Grok to literally discover new technologies that are actually useful no later than next year and maybe [the] end of this year,” Musk said during a livestream.

The update follows criticism of Musk’s chatbot after it shared multiple unprompted antisemitic comments on X. The billionaire has earlier faced backlash over Ani, one of Grok’s earlier user modes, for using flirtatious dialogue and a suggestive avatar. This raised concerns that children can still interact with the bot in “kids mode”.

Last Year in May, Musk shared his views on kids using social media, saying it is “bad” for them. “A lot of social media is bad for kids, as there is extreme competition between social media AIs to maximize dopamine!” he wrote on X, sharing a clip from an interview. In the clip, he says, “I would urge parents to limit the amount of social media that children can see because they're being programmed by a dopamine-maximizing AI.”