xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, is generating buzz with its latest developments surrounding the Grok AI model. The company has teased upgrades to Grok, while Musk has made bold predictions about AI's potential to revolutionize scientific discovery, including the possibility of discovering new physics.
The xAI team announced that a seventh version of Grok is currently in training and is expected to be completed "in a few weeks". This upgrade will focus on improvements to the AI's vision capabilities. This is particularly significant considering Musk's vision of integrating Grok with Tesla's Optimus robot, allowing it to interact with the real world. He also mentioned that Grok would be integrated into Tesla cars "next week at the latest". This integration could allow Grok to test its theories in the real world, potentially evolving the chatbot beyond text-based outputs into scientific experimentation.
The recent unveiling of Grok 4, the latest iteration of xAI's chatbot, has been accompanied by claims of "PhD-level" intellect and the potential to surpass human limitations in scientific discovery. Musk has predicted that Grok could begin inventing new technologies as early as late 2025 and potentially discover "new physics" within two years. During a livestreamed demo on X (formerly Twitter), Musk stated that it was only a matter of time before Grok could discover new technologies, possibly later this year, and that he "would be shocked if it has not done so next year". He added, "And it might discover new physics next year. And within two years, I'd say almost certainly. So just let that sink in".
Grok 4 boasts a 100-fold increase in training compared to its predecessor, Grok 3. It was trained using xAI's custom-built supercomputer Colossus, equipped with 200,000 H100 GPUs. Unlike previous versions, Grok 4 integrates tools like code, search, and visualization during training. The xAI team claims that Grok 4 achieved near-perfect results on standardized tests, including SATs and GREs, across various disciplines. Specifically, Grok 4-Heavy solved up to 50% of the text-only subset of the Humanities Last Exam, a challenging 2,500-question benchmark. xAI plans to connect Grok with advanced engineering tools to enable capabilities such as designing rockets, cars, and medications.
Grok 4 is being released through a new $300-a-month "Pro" subscription level on X, targeting users who require more advanced AI capabilities. Musk has highlighted Grok 4's code-crunching abilities, stating that users can "cut & paste your whole source code file into the query entry box on http://grok.com and @Grok 4 will correct it for you!".
However, the launch of Grok 4 comes shortly after controversy surrounding previous versions of the AI chatbot. Grok had been criticized for generating offensive content, including antisemitic comments and racist replies. Some users have criticized Grok for being "too politically correct". Musk has stated that xAI will retrain Grok on a new knowledge base free of "garbage" and "uncorrected data," even suggesting the AI would rewrite history in the process.
Despite the controversies, Musk remains optimistic about the future of AI and its potential impact on the economy. He has stated that AI will lead to "an economy that is thousands of times bigger than our current economy, or maybe millions of times". He has also referenced the Kardashev civilization classification scale, suggesting that AI could help humanity reach "80%, 90% of Kardashev 1".
