Wait, Grimes Also Has An AI Toy Called Grok?

Oh boy. We’ve already written a few times about Elon Musk’s “Grok” AI from his company xAI, which may or may not be a part of ExTwitter or possibly Tesla, but no one really knows because all of Elon’s companies blend together in a mishmash of hell for anyone who believes in good, normal corporate governance. Specifically, we’ve covered how he’s facing a kinda serious trademark issue with Groq, a well-established AI chip company that has a trademark on the name Groq for use in artificial intelligence (and, no the different spelling doesn’t matter under trademark law).

And now there’s news that there’s a separate Grok AI situation that he faces… this one coming from his ex (he sure does love his “x’s” huh?) Grimes. Apparently there’s a toy startup, named Curio that has teamed up with Grimes to make an AI-powered toy named Grok (I swear this is a sentence that makes sense).

A glimpse toward this future is beginning to emerge in products like Grok, an AI-powered plush toy in the shape of a rocket that can converse with your child. Grok is the first product from a Silicon Valley start-up called Curio that is leveraging Open AI’s technology on a line of toys Curio’s founders say will be capable of long-running, fully interactive conversation, allowing a child to view it almost as a peer or friend.

Canadian musician Claire Boucher, known as Grimes and the mother of three of Elon Musk’s children, is an investor in and adviser to the company, and she will provide the toy’s voice.

“Every [change] in technology unlocks new forms of entertainment,” said Sam Eaton, president and chief toy maker at Curio, who was previously an engineer at Roblox, the gaming platform. “It’s a different level of immersion for playtime.”

And, yes, Curio apparently filed for a trademark on the word Grok as well in September, but in the category of “electronic learning toys” or “plush toys” so it’s not clear it will conflict. For what it’s worth xAI also filed for trademarks on Grok, one on October 23 and the other on November 7 of this year.

There’s also, um, this:

Sallee said that the toy was designed with Grimes’s children in mind and that they have a friendly relationship with it. “The toy was designed for X and the other kids,” she said, referring to the son of Grimes and Musk, X Æ A-Xii, “but X primarily because he’s of age where he can actually talk to the toy and it can talk back more effectively.”

But the toy has no relationship with Musk’s AI start-up, which also is called Grok. Curio holds the trademark on the name, and the two AI products are totally unaffiliated, Curio says. The name Grok was devised by Grimes and the Curio team, who said the word was a shortening of the word Grocket, which was coined because Grimes’ children are exposed to a lot of rockets through their father’s ownership of SpaceX.

As far as I can tell, it’s false that they “hold the trademark” on it. It’s only an application at this point, which makes it pending. I do not see a fully registered trademark on “Grok” for either company (and it wouldn’t surprise me if Groq opposed one or both trademarks).

Also, it seems… mighty convenient for this claim that “Grok” here is short for “Grocket” (especially since then wouldn’t it be called Grock?) but I guess I’ll let the two exes battle that one out among themselves.