Popular messaging app Telegram will soon get an artificial intelligence upgrade as part of a partnership with Elon Musk’s xAI to bring Grok to your conversations.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced the partnership on Musk’s social media platform X saying, “This summer, Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market.”

A video alongside the announcement shows many uses for the AI inside Telegram, including Grok editing text before sending a message, chat summaries for when you’ve got multiple messages to catch up on, and document breakdowns for longer files you download. Grok will also be able to do automatic group chat moderation, fact checking within Channels, image generation for stickers and avatars, and more.

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Durov says the year-long deal will see Telegram earn $300 million in cash and equity in exchange for Grok becoming the default AI on Telegram. The app will also share 50% of revenue for subscriptions to Grok sold through the app.

Telegram’s privacy policy is a big reason why many use the messaging app. The company says one of its key priorities is “protecting your private conversations from snooping third parties,” but Telegram says some data will now be shared with xAI when Grok is in use.

In response to a message about concerns about what user data will be shared with xAI, Durov said that privacy remains “paramount.” Durov added, “xAI will only access data that Telegram users explicitly share with Grok through direct interactions. That’s expected — you can’t message anyone (including a chatbot) without sharing what you write.”

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In the teaser video, Grok is shown working across many different elements within the Telegram app. It’s unclear if Durov’s statement refers to only data shared within direct messages with Grok itself, or whether anything shared in a conversation where Grok is active will be shared with xAI. For example, Grok is going to be used to monitor Channels for moderation, so will those interactions will be shared with xAI?

Some in the comments questioned whether this goes against Telegram’s longstanding “no ads, no subscription fees, forever” promise. The app responded that it’s evolved from “a much simpler platform without channels, mini apps, or AI integrations” over the years, but insisted that “foundational features will never be locked behind a Premium subscription.”

Telegram says its “optional Premium features…are too resource-hungry to offer to everyone for free. This hasn’t stopped Telegram from developing tons of free features at the same time.”

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About James Peckham

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I’ve written tech news for over a decade, and as a Reporter at PCMag, I cover the latest developments across the gadgets and services you use every day. Previously, I worked for Android Police, TechRadar, and more.

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