Elon Musk Unveils Grok 4 Amid Controversy Over Chatbot’s Antisemitic Posts
Elon Musk on Thursday unveiled Grok 4, the newest AI mannequin from xAI, his multibillion-dollar initiative to rival OpenAI and Google. With out citing detailed proof, Musk claimed that the mannequin aces standardized assessments and reveals doctorate-level information in a wide selection of various disciplines.
“Grok 4 is a postgrad-level in every part,” Musk stated throughout an hour-long reside broadcast, which started after midnight in New York. “No less than with respect to tutorial questions, Grok 4 is healthier than PhD stage in each topic. No exceptions.”
xAI didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from WIRED about whether or not it plans to publish an official technical report about Grok 4 detailing its capabilities and limitations. Competing AI builders, equivalent to OpenAI and Google, have routinely launched related publications for his or her fashions.
Customers can entry Grok 4 via the Grok web site or app for $30 a month. Entry to a bigger model often called Grok 4 Heavy prices $300 per 30 days. Later this yr, xAI goals to launch extra fashions which are effectively fitted to software program coding duties and producing video, based on Thursday’s presentation.
Musk, who serves as xAI’s CEO, didn’t handle latest criticism of Grok. Over the previous few days, a model of the AI constructed into Musk’s X social media platform praised Adolf Hitler and supplied antisemitic responses to a number of prompts from X customers. In response, xAI, which owns X, introduced Tuesday it could be taking motion to “to ban hate speech earlier than Grok posts on X.” On Wednesday, Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, introduced she was leaving the corporate with out elaborating on her reasoning or plans.
Throughout Thursday’s livestream, Musk stated that, based on his “organic neural web,” AI programs must be optimized “to be maximally fact looking for” and inspired “to be truthful, honorable, good issues—just like the values you need to instill in a baby that may finally develop as much as be extremely highly effective.”
Musk cofounded xAI in 2023 after OpenAI launched ChatGPT and triggered a surge of funding in generative AI applied sciences that may routinely produce textual content, code, audio, pictures, and movies. xAI launched the primary model of Grok in November of that yr, and Grok 2 debuted final August. Grok 3, which was launched this previous February, is accessible at no cost.
Musk has stated that Grok was designed to have a way of rumor and rebelliousness. On its web site, xAI says its mission is to create correct AI programs and assist individuals get hold of information.
Thursday’s late evening product announcement started over an hour delayed and featured Musk sitting on a sofa with two xAI colleagues in entrance of a darkish background. The trio boasted about Grok’s capabilities, displaying slides that aimed to point out how the mannequin outperforms different AI packages. However Musk additionally acknowledged it nonetheless has important weaknesses.
“These are nonetheless primitive instruments, not the type of instruments that severe industrial corporations use,” he stated.
Musk predicted that Grok would uncover new applied sciences subsequent yr, if not as quickly as later this yr. But, he stated, “at instances it could lack widespread sense, and it has not but invented new applied sciences, or found new physics.”