The internet is convinced Elon Musk’s xAI trolled OpenAI’s ‘Dots’ launch
In Brief Posted: 3:20 PM PDT · September 29, 2026 Image Credits:Sean Gallup / Getty Images Julie Bort The internet is convinced Elon Musk’s xAI trolled OpenAI’s ‘Dots’ launch On Tuesday, OpenAI launched a new product called Dots, an always-on AI agent with a bubbly, blobby avatar. While the…
In Brief Posted: 3:20 PM PDT · September 29, 2026 Image Credits:Sean Gallup / Getty Images Julie Bort The internet is convinced Elon Musk’s xAI trolled OpenAI’s ‘Dots’ launch On Tuesday, OpenAI launched a new product called Dots, an always-on AI agent with a bubbly, blobby avatar. While the colorful avatar might evoke a smile, the biggest laugh from the launch is (we imagine) being had by Elon Musk, the former OpenAI founder who left, launched competitor Grok, and unsuccessfully sued. That’s because the domain “dot.com” belongs to Musk’s xAI, and it currently redirects to the download page for xAI’s Grok chatbot app. According to the Whois domain owner registry, that domain name was just transferred in July. It is entirely possible that xAI bought the domain for normal domain-buying reasons. “Dot” could be a typo of “bot,” so it nabbed it to grab mistyped searches. We’ve reached out to xAI and asked. But xAI doesn’t own the “bot.com” name, nor does it own other obvious typo domains like “vot.com,” which is listed for sale. The internet’s theory is far funnier: that Musk (or his team) pulled off a prank, getting wind of OpenAI’s new product and its name and buying the domain name. In fact, anonymous X user and xAI watcher @birdabo (this person calls themselves “chief shitposting officer @SpaceXAI“) was first to spot the domain name in a now-viral post. Whatever the motivation, the circumstance is funny. And as for the “dots.com” domain, a more direct fit to the product name, it currently belongs to a long-defunct company. So if a petty revenge prank was really the motivation, grabbing that name, too, would be next level. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NO WAY. > OpenAI just announced Dots.> SpaceXAI bought https://t.co/WdFqpl07IQit redirects straight to the Grok Bot download page. based lmao. pic.twitter.com/HF95hLF0T9— sui (@birdabo) September 29, 2026 Topics AI, Elon Musk, OpenAI, TC October 13 – 15 San Francisco Get 50% off a second passThe Disrupt experience is meant to be shared. Get your pass and bring a colleague, partner, or peer at 50% off. Cover more ground by making connections, building momentum, and discovering what’s next in the startup ecosystem. BOOK NOW Newsletters See More Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news Related AI Here’s why OpenAI is absent from Nvidia’s industry-wide effort to end rogue AI agents Julie Bort 10 hours ago AI OpenAI takes on Microsoft with the launch of what feels a whole lot like ChatGPT’s own office suite Lucas Ropek 11 hours ago AI OpenAI launches Dots, its bubbly agentic avatar Lucas Ropek 12 hours ago Latest in AI AI America.gov gets really weird when you ask it about Minecraft, but it’s not a glitch Amanda Silberling 6 hours ago In Brief The internet is convinced Elon Musk’s xAI trolled OpenAI’s ‘Dots’ launch Julie Bort 7 hours ago AI OpenAI’s latest features take direct aim at the app store model Sarah Perez 9 hours agoSource: TechCrunch — Published — Category: Business