Microsoft on Monday became one of the first hyperscalers to provide managed access to Grok, the AI model developed by billionaire Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI.

“These models will have all the service level agreements (SLAs) Azure customers expect from any Microsoft product,” says Microsoft. The Grok AI models will be hosted and billed directly by Microsoft, and offered to its own product teams and customers through its Azure AI Foundry service.

Uh-oh. We’re in conference hell, one of those periods of the year when tech companies try to seize control of the news cycle with a seemingly never-ending stream of product announcements (many incomprehensible to ordinary folks) and/or partnership deals.