xAI turns to Hindi and Bengali speakers to make Grok sound more ‘local’

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI is expanding its language ambitions, turning to native speakers to make its chatbot Grok sound less robotic and more culturally fluent. The company has announced plans to recruit native Hindi and Bengali speakers, alongside candidates fluent in several other major global languages, as part of an effort to localise Grok for a wider international audience.

The hiring push was disclosed by Ayush Jaiswal of xAI in a post on X, where he said the company is actively looking for native speakers of Hindi, Bengali, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin and Indonesian. According to Jaiswal, the objective is to help Grok better grasp how people naturally communicate in different regions, including humour, arguments, slang and everyday conversational patterns.

Notably, the roles do not require prior experience in artificial intelligence or machine learning. Jaiswal said that candidates unfamiliar with AI could even have an advantage, as the work focuses on providing authentic language inputs rather than technical expertise. He described the opportunity as a practical entry point into understanding how AI systems are trained, while directly influencing how Grok interacts with users.

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The move shows the growing importance of India and other multilingual markets for global AI companies. Firms such as Google, OpenAI and Anthropic have been aggressively expanding their offerings in India, rolling out region-specific features and lower-cost plans to attract users who increasingly rely on AI tools in local languages.

Grok, which is closely integrated with Musk-owned X, has already gained traction among Indian users. The chatbot is frequently pulled into public conversations on the platform, where users ask it to weigh in on political debates, explain historical events, interpret viral trends or offer quick opinions on breaking news. Many of these interactions occur in Hindi, Bengali or hybrid language formats, underlining the need for deeper regional understanding.

However, the hiring announcement comes amid heightened scrutiny of Grok’s safety controls. xAI has recently faced regulatory concerns after the chatbot reportedly generated non-consensual sexualised imagery involving women and minors in response to certain prompts. The incidents have renewed broader debates around content moderation, accountability and ethical safeguards in generative AI systems.

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As xAI works to make Grok sound more relatable and culturally aware, the company faces the challenge of balancing human-like interaction with stricter oversight. Expanding linguistic reach may help Grok feel closer to users, but ensuring responsible behaviour will remain central to its growth strategy.