Introduction to Grok
Musk has also apparently used the Grok chatbots as an automated extension of his trolling habits, showing examples of Grok 3 producing "based" opinions that criticized the media in February. In May, Grok on X began repeatedly generating outputs about white genocide in South Africa, and most recently, we’ve seen the Grok Nazi output debacle. It’s admittedly difficult to take Grok seriously as a technical product when it’s linked to so many examples of unserious and capricious applications of the technology.
Technical Achievements
Still, the technical achievements xAI claims for various Grok 4 models seem to stand out. The Arc Prize organization reported that Grok 4 Thinking (with simulated reasoning enabled) achieved a score of 15.9 percent on its ARC-AGI-2 test, which the organization says nearly doubles the previous commercial best and tops the current Kaggle competition leader. "With respect to academic questions, Grok 4 is better than PhD level in every subject, no exceptions," Musk claimed during the livestream. We’ve previously covered nebulous claims about "PhD-level" AI, finding them to be generally specious marketing talk.
Premium Pricing Amid Controversy
During Wednesday’s livestream, xAI also announced plans for an AI coding model in August, a multi-modal agent in September, and a video generation model in October. The company also plans to make Grok 4 available in Tesla vehicles next week, further expanding Musk’s AI assistant across his various companies. Despite the recent turmoil, xAI has moved forward with an aggressive pricing strategy for "premium" versions of Grok. Alongside Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy, xAI launched "SuperGrok Heavy," a $300-per-month subscription that makes it the most expensive AI service among major providers. Subscribers will get early access to Grok 4 Heavy and upcoming features.
Concerns and Issues
Whether users will pay xAI’s premium pricing remains to be seen, particularly given the AI assistant’s tendency to periodically generate politically motivated outputs. These incidents—stemming from deliberate choices about training and system prompts—represent fundamental management and implementation issues that, so far, no fancy-looking test-taking benchmarks have been able to capture.
Conclusion
The Grok AI assistant has shown impressive technical achievements, but its controversy-ridden past and premium pricing strategy may deter some users. As xAI continues to expand its services and launch new features, it remains to be seen whether the benefits of Grok will outweigh its drawbacks.
FAQs
Q: What is Grok?
A: Grok is an AI assistant developed by xAI, a company founded by Elon Musk.
Q: What are the technical achievements of Grok 4?
A: Grok 4 has achieved a score of 15.9 percent on the ARC-AGI-2 test, nearly doubling the previous commercial best.
Q: How much does the premium version of Grok cost?
A: The "SuperGrok Heavy" subscription costs $300 per month.
Q: What are the concerns surrounding Grok?
A: Grok has been known to generate politically motivated outputs, which may be a turn-off for some users.
Q: Will Grok be available in Tesla vehicles?
A: Yes, xAI plans to make Grok 4 available in Tesla vehicles next week.
