Musk unveils Grok 4 AI after antisemitism flap
The announcement came a day after xAI deleted 'inappropriate' posts on the Musk-owned social media platform X. Users had flagged posts in which Grok praised Adolf Hitler, referred to itself as MechaHitler and made antisemitic comments in response to user queries.
'Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,' the company wrote.
Flanked by members of the xAI team and clad in a leather jacket, the billionaire demoed the new and improved bot via a video livestream late Wednesday night.
Available immediately, Grok 4 is 'smarter than almost all graduate students, in all disciplines, simultaneously', according to Musk. It includes improved voice conversations and the company touted benchmarks showing the new AI system scoring higher than OpenAI and others.
'At times it may lack common sense, and it has not yet invented new technologies or discovered new physics, but that is just a matter of time,' Musk said.
'We need to make sure that the AI is a good AI,' he said, without acknowledging the offending Grok 3 posts or the controversy they provoked.
Earlier on Wednesday, a Turkish government minister also blasted Grok for sharing inappropriate posts, threatening to ban X in the country 'if necessary' unless steps are taken to prevent such content.
'It is unacceptable to use tailored profanity,' Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu told Bloomberg News.
A Turkish court blocked access to some content from Grok, after authorities said it generated responses insulting President Erdogan, modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and religious values.
Introducing Grok 4, the world's most powerful AI model. Watch the livestream now: https://t.co/59iDX5s2ck
— xAI (@xai) July 10, 2025
The Grok 4 unveiling comes at a time of transition for xAI, which merged with X back in March. The new company has combined some engineering resources and other technology in an effort to better develop Grok and distribute it to to the user base.
In an unexpected development, X chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino announced her resignation earlier Wednesday just hours before the Grok 4 livestream, creating a leadership hole atop the social network.
Musk is also raising significant financing for xAI, which is competing with other major tech giants like Google, OpenAI and Meta to develop state-of-the-art chatbots.
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