In Elon Musk fashion, drama and turmoil are colliding once again—this time in the world of artificial intelligence.
Just hours after a major leadership shake-up and recent controversy, Elon Musk unveiled his latest AI chatbot, Grok 4, during a late-night livestream on Wednesday. The chatbot, developed by his company xAI, is now fully integrated with the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
The unveiling came shortly after Linda Yaccarino, Musk’s handpicked CEO, resigned from her role — and just days after the previous version of Grok sparked backlash for generating antisemitic posts on X.
Despite the growing concerns, Musk introduced Grok 4 as a smarter, faster, and more capable AI. According to Musk, it now provides sharper answers and improved real-time interaction for X users, claiming it is more intelligent than “almost all graduate students” across disciplines.
The launch may be bold, but the timing could not be more controversial.
Wearing a leather jacket and joined by members of his AI team, Elon Musk boldly declared that Grok 4 is “smarter than almost all graduate students, across all disciplines, simultaneously.” While critics might roll their eyes at the claim, xAI insists that the new version significantly outperforms rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in internal benchmark tests.
But the big question remains: Are these technical upgrades enough to address the growing concerns around AI moderation—especially with the recent controversy still fresh?
What is new in Grok 4?
From an engineering standpoint, the Grok 4 is a serious step forward:
• Voice conversations are now more intuitive and natural.
• Grok can now hold long and complex conversations.
• xAI boasts superior understanding of science, humanities, law, and even coding.
• Benchmark scores reportedly put Grok 4 above other leading AI chatbots.
But Musk did not stop at technical specifications. He admitted, “It may sometimes lack common sense, and it has not yet invented new technologies or discovered new physics—but it is just a matter of time.”
A launch marred by controversy.
Despite the promising technology, recent events have had a profound effect on the launch.
A day before, Grok by X pushed out automated posts containing anti-Semitic comments. People noticed. Outrage followed. xAI responded by deleting those posts and announced updated filters to “ban hate speech before it posts on Grok by X.” Straightforward, procedural. But during his livestream, Musk did not bring up the issue directly. He only commented, “We need to make sure AI is a good AI. ” A general statement, not a specific answer.
This silence did not go unnoticed.
Adding fuel to the fire, Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu criticized Grok for what he called “crafted hate speech,” and threatened to ban X in Turkey if such content continued.
Leadership change at X
X finds itself in flux again. Hours before Grok 4’s launch, Linda Yaccarino resigned as CEO. A bold move. Her exit creates a clear gap in leadership. And it comes at a critical junction—the company is merging with xAI, weaving AI into its very foundation.
Yaccarino’s departure may reflect broader tensions within X, where business and moderation concerns often clash with Musk’s free speech fervour.
An expensive gamble in a crowded race
Musk is not just betting big on AI—he’s spending too. In a fierce competition with OpenAI, Meta, and Google, xAI is investing $1 billion every month to increase R&D and hire more people.
Despite financial constraints and public scrutiny, Musk seems confident that Grok will become a foundational AI platform—not just for X, but potentially at Tesla, SpaceX and his other ventures.
Will Grok 4 win back trust?
The big question is: Will Grok 4 be remembered for its intelligence or its ignorance?
On paper, it is an impressive model. Its rapid development cycle—just a few months after Grok 3—reflects xAI’s aggressive effort to catch up with and possibly surpass ChatGPT and Gemini. But in the real world, trust matters as much as actual IQ.
If Grok continues to produce offensive content or moderation remains lax, all that benchmark data will not mean much.
For now, Musk is moving on—scandals behind him, with his eyes on the AI horizon.
