Musk Declares Grok 3 Launching Today the “Smartest AI on Earth”
By TechZim
We haven’t really talked about Grok that much here on Techzim, but it’s a viable AI chatbot to use. Later today, Grok 3 will launch and is supposed to be “the smartest AI on Earth.”
Yes, if you somehow didn’t know this, Grok is an xAI product. That little “X” should be the giveaway that it is an Elon Musk-owned product.
Musk launched xAI back in July 2023 to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the rest. Yes, the rest are competition, but Musk is particularly gunning for ChatGPT.
I believe he would rather xAI and OpenAI kill each other in battle and have another contender take the top spot because that would mean OpenAI doesn’t win.
Musk co-founded OpenAI but left in 2018 after some disagreements on the future of the not-for-profit venture.
OpenAI is currently valued at over $300 billion, but xAI has done quietly well and was valued at $50 billion in its last funding round in November 2024, attracting investments from major firms like Nvidia and AMD.
Musk is having his Midas touch phase right now, and he better take full advantage. You will recall that he paid just above $50 billion for Twitter, and now this xAI business is worth that much since its launch in 2023.
Like I said, xAI’s chatbot is called Grok, and it’s the one getting a huge update tonight.
What Makes Grok 3 Different?
Musk claims Grok 3 is the “smartest AI on Earth,” trained on synthetic data to ensure logical consistency and superior performance compared to existing AI bots. There’s that Musk humility on display.
To explain that superiority claim, he is saying Grok AI was trained on artificial (synthetic) data, not just real-world data. Because of this, the AI can analyze its own answers, check if they make sense, and correct mistakes by going back to its training data. This helps the AI stay logically consistent—meaning its answers should align with reason and avoid contradictions.
Simply put: Grok can double-check itself and improve its responses by learning from its own mistakes. That’s the claim, at least.
Grok vs. ChatGPT vs. Meta AI
One advantage Grok has that ChatGPT does not is that Grok comes baked into X (Twitter). That’s the same kind of advantage that Meta AI has by being built into Meta apps (WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.).
Our polls have shown that most of the Techzim community uses Meta AI because it is conveniently found in apps they use daily. Grok could capture heavy X users too.
Anyway, if you have X installed, you could try out Grok 3 after tonight and see if it truly is the smartest AI on Earth. I know I will be trying it out.
Out of all the AI chatbots, I use ChatGPT the most, but I love the idea of Grok. I hate that it has started out the way ChatGPT did—that is, not available in Zimbabwe.
You’ll get the “This service is not available in your region” error if you try to visit grok.com. However, you can access it via X, so it’s not that big of a deal.
Free Speech and AI Sensitivity
What I love about Grok is that it was made with Musk’s free speech ideals in mind. This means it won’t go sensitive on you and fail to help with something some might deem offensive.
For example, if you ask ChatGPT to “create an image of an afro-haired Black man with a watermelon in one hand and a chicken wing in the other,” it will tell you:
I can’t create that image because it reinforces racial stereotypes. However, if you’re looking for an image of a Black man enjoying food, I can create something more neutral and positive, like a man enjoying a meal with friends or a chef preparing a dish. Let me know how you’d like me to proceed!
Grok will happily create that for you, while Gemini is still not confident enough to even attempt creating images with humans in them. Fortunately, Meta AI is now trending toward not being sensitive and will help with whatever you want—within limits, of course.
Credit: TechZim.com
