El Salvador partners with Musk to deploy Grok in national school system

El Salvador has launched a partnership with Elon Musk’s xAI to introduce artificial intelligence into its public education system. The plan will place Grok, xAI’s conversational model, in more than 5,000 schools over the next two years. Officials expect the system to provide adaptive, curriculum-aligned tutoring to more than one million students.

Grok, developed by Musk’s tech company and integrated with X, delivers real-time conversational responses supported by live platform data. The government says the technology will adjust to each student’s pace and level of understanding.

According to an xAI statement, the initiative will also assist thousands of teachers. The rollout is designed to narrow learning gaps between urban and rural communities and to establish a framework for responsible use of AI in classrooms.

President Nayib Bukele said the agreement reflects the country’s drive to shape its own technological path. He linked the project to earlier efforts to position El Salvador as a center of innovation.

Musk said the partnership would place advanced tools in the hands of an entire generation of Salvadoran students. He described the project as a step toward transforming global education.

Beyond deploying Grok, xAI and the government intend to develop new methods, datasets and guidelines to support ethical and effective use of AI in schools worldwide.

The move into AI follows El Salvador’s high-profile Bitcoin experiment, launched in 2021 when the country adopted the cryptocurrency as legal tender. The policy sought to expand financial access, attract new investment and lower remittance costs.

Four years after the launch, usage remains limited. Studies indicate that only a small share of citizens regularly use the state-backed Chivo wallet. Bukele said in a 2024 interview that adoption had not met expectations.

Later that year, El Salvador agreed to end Bitcoin’s legal-tender status as part of a $1.4 billion arrangement with the International Monetary Fund. The government amended the 2021 law, removed mandatory acceptance, stopped tax payments in Bitcoin and reduced the Chivo program. The U.S. dollar remains the main currency, while Bitcoin continues as a reserve asset.