On Monday, February 17, 2025, Elon Musk's xAI launched its newest AI model, Grok 3, which is designed to rival models like Google's Gemini and OpenAI's GPT-4o[1]. Musk has stated that Grok 3 is "an order of magnitude more capable than Grok 2"[1][6].
Key Features and Capabilities:
* Computational Power Grok 3 has ten times more computing power than its predecessor, Grok 2[2][4]. It was trained in a Memphis data center using approximately 200,000 GPUs[1].
* Reasoning Skills Grok-3 has demonstrated enhanced reasoning capabilities to handle complex tasks[2]. It breaks down problems into smaller components and self-verifies solutions[2]. Grok 3 has two reasoning modes: "Think" and "Big Brain"[2][5]. The "Big Brain" mode is intended for computationally intensive tasks[2][5].
* Truth-Seeking AI Musk says Grok 3 is a "maximally truth-seeking AI, even if that truth is sometimes at odds with what is politically correct"[1][6][7].
* New Search Engine xAI has launched "Deep Search," a next-generation AI search engine[2][3][5].
Functionality and Performance
* Grok 3 can analyze images and respond to questions[1]. It powers features on the social network X[1].
* According to xAI, Grok 3 outperforms models from OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, and Anthropic[3][4][5]. These claims have not been independently verified[4].
* Grok 3 has shown superior performance in early testing compared to other models, including excelling in mathematics, science, and programming[3][6].
* An early version of Grok 3 received higher ratings than current competitors on Chatbot Arena, a crowdsourced platform for blind AI model evaluations[3].
* Grok 3 can program online games[4][5]. In a demonstration, it was asked to create a hybrid game between Tetris and Bejeweled[4].
Access and Availability:
* Grok 3 is available to X Premium Plus subscribers, which costs $40 per month[2][5]. There is also an option for a direct subscription via Grok's app or website[5].
* A smaller version of Grok 3, called Grok 3 mini, responds to questions more quickly but with less accuracy[1].
Updates and Future Plans:
* xAI is continually improving Grok 3, with improvements expected every 24 hours[4][6].
* A synthesized voice feature for Grok is rumored to be coming soon[2].
* xAI plans to open-source Grok-2 in the near future[2].
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/17/elon-musks-ai-company-xai-releases-its-latest-flagship-ai-grok-3/
[2] https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/i-tested-grok-3-with-5-prompts-heres-what-i-like-and-dont-like-about-this-chatbot
[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/18/elon-musk-xai-grok-3-model-release-ai-competition-.html
[4] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-grok-3-xai-ai-chatbot-openai/
[5] https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/tech/grok-3-release-elon-musk/index.html
[6] https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/elon-musk-promised-grok-3-would-be-the-smartest-ai-ever-spoiler-alert-it-wasnt
[7] https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/elon-musks-grok-3-is-now-available-beats-chatgpt-in-some-benchmarks-llm-took-10x-more-compute-to-train-versus-grok-2
[8] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/02/new-grok-3-release-tops-llm-leaderboards-despite-musk-approved-based-opinions/