Did Elon Musk buy 'dot.com' domain to troll OpenAI?
What's the story
OpenAI unveiled a new product called Dots yesterday, an always-on AI agent with a bubbly and blobby avatar. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's xAI now owns the dot.com domain and redirects it to its Grok chatbot app download page. The move has led many to speculate whether it was a prank aimed at OpenAI over its new product name.
Domain ownership
Dot.com domain was acquired in July
The dot.com domain was acquired by xAI in July, as per the Whois domain owner registry.
While this could be a regular purchase to avoid potential misspellings of "bot," it has also raised eyebrows.
Notably, xAI doesn't own other similar typo domains like vot.com, which is up for sale.
This has led to speculation that Musk or his team might have bought the domain specifically to troll OpenAI over its new product name.
Online response
The news quickly went viral
The domain acquisition was first reported by an anonymous X user and xAI observer, @birdabo.
The news quickly went viral, with many interpreting it as a possible prank by Musk or his team.
It's worth noting that the dots.com domain, which would have been a more direct match for OpenAI's product name, is currently owned by a defunct company.