AI News Page

MACHINE AGE CARTOON

ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT

By Zimbo · November 6, 2026

AI cartoon by Zimbo: Satirical cartoon: a cheerful Grok robot devours plates of dollar bills under a Grok ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT sign while Musk holds an empty wallet and a customer holds an empty WEEKLY ALLOWANCE plate, on plain white paper.
Musk admits Grok costs more to run than it makes — while paying users' weekly allowances evaporate in an hour.Zimbo for AI News Page

The story behind the cartoon

Asked on X on November 1 whether xAI could reset Grok Bot's weekly usage pool, Elon Musk answered in plain words: 'The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue.'

Paying users had burned through their weekly allowances days early, some in about an hour, and found their limits cut with no warning. Grok Bot, launched August 11, runs multi-step jobs on its own virtual computer — research, writing, browsing — which chews through far more GPU time than a chat reply.

It grew to roughly 800,000 paid weekly users in about two months, and the growth made the bill worse, not better — every new customer is another mouth the bot has to feed at a loss.

The joke is the money-losing-agent beat: a cheerful Grok robot devours plates of dollar bills at an ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT counter while Musk clutches an empty wallet and the paying customer holds up an empty WEEKLY ALLOWANCE plate.

READ THE FULL REPORT — Startup Fortune ↗

MORE ZIMBO ↓

Satirical cartoon: three robot surgeons labeled CLAUDE, GPT and GROK point red, blue and green syringes at one small mouse on an operating table, while a vet in a lab coat holds her hand over a red KILL SWITCH button.THREE SURGEONS, ONE MOUSESatirical cartoon: a smiling suited realtor fits a large industrial muffler over an exhausted homeowner's mouth while handing him a check and a folder marked CLAIMS RELEASE beside a FOR SALE sign, with a roaring gas turbine plant behind the house.THE SOUNDPROOFINGSatirical cartoon: a black GROK robot drops a red ballot and a white GPT robot drops a blue ballot into a split red-and-blue ballot box with an American flag design.THE SPLIT BALLOT.Satirical cartoon: an empty red-and-gold throne holds a paper reading SUBPOENA while stern council members look on; above hangs a framed portrait of a smug crowned Elon Musk in ermine robes.ZIMBO ROASTS: ELON MUSK

Sources behind the cartoon

Embed this cartoon

GRAB THE SNIPPET

Free to put on your site. Paste the snippet, keep the credit line, don't mess with the art.

Zimbo

Zimbo draws money, power, artificial intelligence, and whatever else appears to be going terribly well.

Republish this cartoon

Newsletters, blogs, and publications may republish this cartoon free with visible Zimbo / AI News Page credit and a link to this page. Keep the Zimbo signature intact, do not materially alter the artwork, and do not imply endorsement by AI News Page. This permission applies only to this cartoon, not linked source material or other third-party works.