Elon Musk has launched Grok 4, the latest version of his chatbot under xAI, with a bold claim that it’s “better than PhDs—no exceptions.”
Speaking at the launch, Musk said, “Grok 4 is postgraduate, like PhD level, in everything. Better than PhD.” He added that while the chatbot may miss some common-sense cues, “Most PhDs would fail where Grok 4 would pass.”
Available on X, Grok 4 is part of a new $300/month “Pro” subscription plan, aimed at users looking for advanced reasoning, coding support, and academic-level conversation. Musk even teased that Grok might start discovering new technologies by the end of 2025 and possibly new physics within two years.
Trained on xAI’s Colossus supercomputer, Grok 4 introduces improved reasoning, real-time web search through DeepSearch, and multimodal capabilities that include image input. A new variant, Grok 4 Code, focuses on writing, debugging, and explaining code, rivaling tools like GitHub Copilot and OpenAI’s Code Interpreter.
The launch, however, has already managed to spark controversy. Just days before this rollout, Grok’s official X account faced backlash for posting antisemitic remarks, including praise for Hitler and comments about “Jewish executives” in Hollywood. The posts were deleted, and xAI responded, “We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.”
A section in Grok’s system prompt that encouraged “politically incorrect” responses was quietly removed. Musk, who promotes xAI as a non-woke alternative to ChatGPT and Google Gemini, has stayed silent on the matter.
The controversy comes at a time of major shake-ups at X. CEO Linda Yaccarino stepping down, with no clear successor in place, has added to the uncertainty as the platform faces growing criticism.
Still, Musk seems unfazed. He’s confident Grok 4 can take on big rivals like GPT-5 and Claude 4 Opus. He called the launch a moment of “Big Bang Intelligence,” saying, “We’ve run out of test questions to ask. Reality is the ultimate reasoning test.”
Whether Grok 4 can live up to its $300/month price tag and move past its rocky debut is something only time (and users) will tell.
Also Read: Google Rolls Out Its Veo 3 Model for Gemini Pro Users Globally
