X’s Grok Stories Will Now Deliver Summarized News Using Social Posts on Trending Topics

• X plans to roll out a new Grok AI-powered news compilation feature.
• Under this, social commentary would be used to summarize trending news.
• Users can find more details about each topic by simply chatting with Grok AI or checking out the original source pasted above the summary.

Elon Musk has some ambitious plans for X. The platform will now feature news with the help of the newly launched Grok AI.

Here's how it will work:

• Once a trending news is picked, all related stories on social media (mostly from X) around it will be compiled together and public discussions on the topic will be used to create one full package of everything you need to know about the event.
• Then, if you need more details about it, you'll also be able to take a deep dive by chatting with Grok AI or you can click on the link above the summary that will lead you to the original source.
• If there's any new update to the story, the details of it will automatically be updated in the summary.

The goal is simple: to provide maximally accurate and timely information, citing the most significant sources." - Elon Musk

The news was confirmed through a post made by the company's engineering team on Friday. It said that this feature is only for Premium users and is only available on the Web and iOS for now. You'll find it under the For You tab in Explore.

Challenges with This Initiative

While this project might surely have it in it to transform the AI and news industry, it's not free of challenges.

Challenge #1 - HallucinationsThe biggest challenge would be for the AI bot to generate accurate news and use the right citations. Tools like these are often susceptible to hallucination" where they completely make up facts.

This is something Musk and the team need to look out for. But for now, the platform displays a message reminding the users that Grok can be wrong about some facts and it's important to verify the story.

Challenge #2 - Copyright

This one's a double-edged sword. How effective social commentary will be in summarizing news while avoiding copyright remains a big question. But on the flip side, it might help the company avoid copyright lawsuits from news websites and publications.

Recently, OpenAI and Microsoft have been hit by a bunch of lawsuits for using journalistic material without their consent or compensation for training its AI models. However, this shouldn't be a worry for X because its news summaries will be completely based on what users discuss about a story.

As Danielle Coffey, president and CEO of the News/Media Alliance, pointed out, courts put commentary under the provision for fair use, unlike original pieces.

How Will This Benefit X?

The last few years, especially ever since Musk took over, have been tumultuous for the company. A complete rebranding followed by tons of new features and initiatives has left the users confused and uninterested.

But with a new approach to summarizing news, X might get a much-needed competitive edge over other social media platforms. None of the big three i.e. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are focusing this much on news.

Meta Threads even decided to move away from political news. The company said that while political news will still be available on the platform, it'll no longer be actively promoted.

Initially, even X seemed to deprioritize news. However, plans have changed now and if everything works out, this move might also encourage people who are interested in news to pay for the Premium subscription.

It's important to note that just because Meta and TikTok aren't focusing on news doesn't mean X won't have any competition.

• Former Twitter engineers are also building a new AI-powered news summary platform called Particle.
• Also, Arc's new web browser already has an AI news summary feature.

However, since X's approach is different from others, it might be a game-changer for the company. Stay tuned for more.

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