BOSTON: Oct 29 – Vodia Networks, Inc., a provider of unified cloud communications solutions to enterprises, contact centers, and managed service providers (MSPs), is pleased to announce the industry-standard Vodia PBX now supports Grok.
What is Grok and what does it do?
In 2023 Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, released Grok, an AI chatbot. Like other AI chatbots, it provides direct responses to user queries, but with what are described as “direct, rebellious and unfiltered” replies, with a “personality” far more informal and less filtered than standard bots.
Much like other chatbots, Grok answers questions, assists with coding, comes up with ideas, creates images, writes emails, and enables voice chat; it also integrates with Google Drive. As with most AI-enabled platforms. It is accessible via a browser or app; the basic version is available without a subscription.
In January of this year xAI released Grok Imagine, which can create high-quality images, accurate text and logos, and portraits. It includes a sketchpad feature, though users can simply upload images. Grok has integrated with X since November 2023 – it pulls information from posts and answers questions.
Grok setup in the Vodia PBX
Unlike the Vodia PBX OpenAI integration, there is no dedicated Grok trunk type in the Vodia PBX. The Grok SIP path is configured as a generic SIP gateway trunk pointed at xAI’s SIP ingress, combined with a phone number registered against an xAI account via the API.
Users need to log into the xAI Cloud Console and create an API key, for number registration below and inside the Voice Agents script. xAI doesn’t provision numbers – users must register a number under origin: “byo_trunk”, and xAI matches inbound SIP against it. The number doesn’t need to be dialable on the PSTN — it’s only used between your PBX and xAI, but it must be a well-formed E.164 number, since xAI validates the format.
Voice agents AI transfer
Vodia JavaScript Voice Agents capabilities enable a basic Voice Agents script that uses xAI’s Grok Speech to Speech API. As with the OpenAI example, the audio (RTP) is established through a SIP call to xAI, while call control and function calls are handled over a WebSocket bound to the same call by the unique call_id xAI delivers in its webhook.
As with the Grok setup, users must register their phone numbers with xAI, configure the webhook and SIP authentication, and then set up the generic SIP trunk and dialplan on Vodia.
Vodia continues to refine and strengthen V70 so it supports the integrations Vodia PBX users need to build peerless business communication ecosystems.
