Musk tells Tesla staff to switch to Grok — a model he admits is worse

This story is about Tesla's internal AI tools, not home energy equipment, so it has no real bearing on your house or any upgrade plans. Briefly: Elon Musk told Tesla staff to switch to Grok, the AI chatbot made by his company xAI, even though he has acknowledged it performs worse than rival models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. The move came days after Tesla capped employee spending on outside AI tools at $200 a week — a cap that applies to competitors but exempts Grok. Independent benchmark tests back up Musk's own admission: Grok 4.5 ranks below several other models in overall performance and has the lowest coding score among those tested, though it costs much less to run per task.

None of this touches home energy efficiency, rebates, or equipment. If you're weighing upgrades like insulation, air sealing (blocking drafts that leak heated or cooled air), or a heat pump, this news doesn't change any deadlines, incentives, or technology options available to you. It's simply a look at how Tesla's leadership is managing software costs inside the company.