OpenAI used its developer event on Tuesday to launch Dots, an always-on AI agent with a bubbly, blobby avatar. But the internet's attention quickly moved to a domain name: dot.com, which redirects straight to the download page for Grok, the chatbot made by Elon Musk's xAI. According to the Whois registry, the domain was transferred in July.
Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI before leaving to start a competitor and suing the company unsuccessfully, so the coincidence was too good for the internet to ignore. The theory — that xAI bought the domain as a swipe at OpenAI's product name — spread after the anonymous X account @birdabo, which describes itself as 'chief shitposting officer @SpaceXAI', posted about the redirect in a now-viral message.
There are mundane explanations. 'Dot' could be a typo of 'bot', so the domain might have been grabbed to catch mistyped searches. But xAI does not own bot.com, nor does it own other obvious typo domains such as vot.com, which is listed for sale. And dots.com — the most direct fit for the new product — belongs to a long-defunct company.
TechCrunch reported that it had asked xAI for comment. Whether or not the redirect was intended as a prank, the timing handed Musk's rival's launch a punchline it could not control.
