It looks like Grimes may have come up with Grok before Elon Musk gave his AI the same name
- Grimes' new AI toy and Elon Musk's chatbot share a name.
- However, the trademark application for Grimes' Grok was filed more than a month before Elon's.
Grimes' new interactive AI toy, Grok, has the same name as the chatbot released by Elon Musk's new AI startup, xAI.
Musk first announced the name of his chatbot on November 4 through a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Meanwhile, Grimes and toy startup Curio, announced the launch of their AI-powered toy, Grok, on Thursday.
However, the trademark application for the toy Grok was filed by Curio on September 12. That's more than a month before xAI filed its trademark application for its chatbot on October 23, and well before Musk first announced the chatbot's name on X.
Curio told the Washington Post that the name of their toy was unrelated to Musk's chatbot, and said Grok was short for Grocket. The reason for Grocket: Grimes' children spend a lot of time around rockets because of their father's company, SpaceX.
The AI-powered toy, which speaks with Grimes' voice, was designed for her children with Musk, the singer told the Post.
Musk did not explain the meaning of his chatbot's name. However, to grok means "to understand profoundly and intuitively," according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It may also be a reference to Robert Heinlein's 1961 sci-fi novel, "Stranger in a Strange Land."
Grimes and Musk are currently are locked in a custody battle over their three children, and are currently arguing over which state should have jurisdiction over their case.
Musk and Grimes did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.