Elon Musk's xAI enters agentic coding with new AI model

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, on Thursday unveiled its first "speedy and economical" agentic coding model, marking its entry into one of the most competitive spaces in AI innovation.

The model, named grok-code-fast-1, is designed to autonomously handle coding-related tasks.

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According to xAI, its strength lies in "delivering strong performance in an economical, compact form factor, making it a versatile choice for tackling common coding tasks quickly and cost-effectively."

For a limited time, the tool will be available for free through launch partners, including GitHub Copilot and Windsurf.

The launch puts xAI in direct competition with established players like Microsoft and OpenAI, who have aggressively invested in AI-driven developer tools.

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Microsoft recently introduced advanced GitHub Copilot features at its Build 2024 developer conference, with CEO Satya Nadella noting that 20-30% of Microsoft's code is now written by AI.

Meanwhile, OpenAI rolled out Codex-powered coding capabilities to ChatGPT Plus users in June.

The debut of grok-code-fast-1 also comes amid heightened legal tensions.

Earlier this week, xAI filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI in U.S. federal court in Texas, alleging the companies conspired to suppress competition in the AI industry.