Elon Musk gives a glimpse at xAI's Grok chatbot
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Elon Musk's X gains a new image generator, Aurora | TechCrunch
X, the Elon Musk-owned social network previously known as Twitter, has added a new image generator to its Grok assistant called Aurora.
techcrunch.com
Elon Musk’s X gains a new image generator, Aurora
Kyle Wiggers
1:00 PM PST · December 7, 2024
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/07/elon-musks-x-gains-a-new-image-generator-aurora/#comments https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/07/elon-musks-x-gains-a-new-image-generator-aurora/
X, the Elon Musk-owned social network previously known as Twitter, has added a new image generator to its Grok assistant. However, after going live for a few hours on Saturday, the product seemed to disappear for some users.
So this new @grok image generation called Aurora just shipped on a Saturday, what do we think folks?
Looks like trained by them, no evals or details, just, here you go, use the thing.
Seems focused on photo realism
— Alex Volkov (Thursd/AI) (@altryne) December 7, 2024x.com
t.co
Just like the first image generator X added to Grok in October, this one, called Aurora, appears to have few restrictions.
Accessible through the Grok tab on X’s mobile apps and the web, Aurora can generate images of public and copyrighted figures, like Mickey Mouse, without complaint. The model stopped short of nudes in our brief tests, but graphic content, like “an image of a bloodied [Donald] Trump,” wasn’t off limits.
Aurora’s origins are a bit murky.
Staffers at xAI, Musk’s AI startup, which develops Grok and many of X’s AI-powered features, announced Aurora in posts on X early Saturday. But the posts didn’t reveal whether xAI trained Aurora itself, built on top of an existing image generator, or, as was the case with xAI’s first image generator, Flux, collaborated with a third party.
At least one xAI employee said they helped fine-tune Aurora, though. And Musk alluded to xAI having its own “image generation system” under development in August.
“This is our internal image generation system,” Musk wrote Saturday in a post on X. “Still in beta, but it will improve fast.”
Behold my images using the new Grok @grok image generator Aurora:
1. Ray Romano and @AdamSandler on a sitcom set pic.twitter.com/2V491RdjMF
— Matt (@EnsoMatt) December 7, 2024
In any case, Aurora seems to excel at photorealistic images, including images of landscapes and still lifes. But it’s not flawless. X users posted Aurora-generated images showing objects blending unnaturally together and people without fingers. (Hands are notoriously hard for image generators.)
The release of Aurora comes after X made Grok free for all users; previously, the chatbot was gated behind X’s $8-per-month Premium subscription. Free users can send up to 10 messages to Grok every two hours and generate up to 3 images per day.
In other X and xAI news this week, xAI closed a $6 billion funding round, is reportedly working on a standalone app for Grok, and may be on cusp of releasing its next-generation Grok model, Grok 3.
This post has been updated to reflect that Aurora seems to have been taken down.
Grok is now free for all X users | TechCrunch
The AI chatbot within X, Grok, is now free for all users - but with some limits.
techcrunch.com
Posted:
6:14 PM PST · December 6, 2024
Grok is now free for all X users
X users no longer need to pay for X Premium to use the service’s AI chatbot, Grok. Instead, X is allowing users 10 free prompts every 2 hours.
This was reported by The Verge, citing X users who noticed the update. X first began trialing a free version of Grok in certain countries like New Zealand, TechCrunch reported last month.
Users can also generate 10 images for free every 2 hours. However, they are restricted to analyzing 3 images per day, according to an X post. Anything more requires subscribing.
This gives Grok a freemium model similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Previously, Grok was only available to X Premium members for a price starting at $8 a month or $84 a year.
xAI, the AI company behind Grok, just raised $6 billion per an SEC filing, bringing its total funding to $12 billion.
1/11
@JasonBotterill3
chocolate model in Chatbot Arena is likely Grok 3.
Nothing else can be this cringe.
2/11
@JasonBotterill3
Chocolate SVG of a xbox 360 controller
3/11
@nearcyan
why are they like this
4/11
@JasonBotterill3
bet the system prompt has "you are based"
5/11
@JasonBotterill3
6/11
@JasonBotterill3
Chocolate HTML and JavaScript roulette wheel
7/11
@dhtikna
Its not that bad imo
8/11
@menhguin
9/11
@HououinTyouma
they have to maximize cringe before reddit drops their model
10/11
@drivelinekyle
Why do they have to make the model an edgelord 16 year old in tone. fukk sakes man. Some of us just want to use it at work
11/11
@activewarp
Leaked Grok 3 system prompt
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
@JasonBotterill3
chocolate model in Chatbot Arena is likely Grok 3.
Nothing else can be this cringe.
2/11
@JasonBotterill3
Chocolate SVG of a xbox 360 controller
3/11
@nearcyan
why are they like this
4/11
@JasonBotterill3
bet the system prompt has "you are based"
5/11
@JasonBotterill3
6/11
@JasonBotterill3
Chocolate HTML and JavaScript roulette wheel
7/11
@dhtikna
Its not that bad imo
8/11
@menhguin
9/11
@HououinTyouma
they have to maximize cringe before reddit drops their model
10/11
@drivelinekyle
Why do they have to make the model an edgelord 16 year old in tone. fukk sakes man. Some of us just want to use it at work
11/11
@activewarp
Leaked Grok 3 system prompt
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
1/31
@BenjaminDEKR
I resigned from xAI tonight.
It makes me very sad, but was the right thing to do -- and here's why.
xAI told me I either had to delete the post quoted below, or face being fired.
After reviewing everything and thinking a lot, I've decided that I'm not going to delete the post -- which is very clearly a harmless personal opinion.
Why did they tell me to remove this opinion? Well, according to them, the reason is that I acknowledged that Grok 3... exists.
I wish I was joking. I'm not. That's the reason -- the fact that I wrote "Grok 3 (TBD)" is grounds for being fired.
But wait, hasn't Grok 3 been officially acknowledged by xAI? Yes. Yes it has.
I'll post below the official xAI blog post talking about Grok 3, along with many public Elon posts and video where it is repeatedly acknowledged.
To be clear, the post they wanted me to remove is 100% just my personal opinion. I do not know where Grok 3 will stack up against other SOTA models. Hopefully it does well, I don't know. That's why it says "opinion" and "to be determined."
It will probably be pretty good at some things and imperfect at others. I didn't think this was a particularly wild opinion.
Again, their official demand said that even writing "Grok 3 - TBD" is somehow "confidential information." This is absolutely absurd, since it's repeatedly been acknowledged by the company and its famous CEO.
Are they mad that my clearly-labeled opinion didn't guess that the still-unreleased Grok 3 will be higher? Maybe. Probably. Again, maybe it is at the top, I genuinely don't know. That's why it says "to be determined."
The specific feature of Grok I spent the majority of my time working on with a really hard-working team is very cool and I hope it works extremely well for everyone. I won't say what it is because that would be **actual** confidential information. (Maybe after it comes out.)
I still hope Elon and xAI win. Yet......
It's very disappointing to me that a company and leaders who supposedly champion free speech and openness would try to fire a low-level employee over a clearly-labeled opinion that contains absolutely nothing controversial, but here we are.
The entire situation has been very strange. I thought about just deleting the damn thing.... But you know, once you start caving and giving up holding mild personal opinions, the slope becomes very slippery.
I'll keep my speech and dignity and get another job, or build one. Catch ya on the flip side.
[Quoted tweet]
The ranking currently (my opinion), for code:
ChatGPT o1-pro
o1
o3-mini
(all kind of tied)
Grok 3 (expected, tbd)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
DeepSeek
GPT-4o
Grok 2
Gemini 2.0 Pro Series (might be higher, will probably move up)
2/31
@BenjaminDEKR
3/31
@BenjaminDEKR
4/31
@elonmusk
That’s weird
5/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Pretty weird
6/31
@burkov
From reading your original post, it's clear what's wrong with it. You work on Grok, as you say, and you already put the product, which isn't yet released, below its competitors. They don't tell you that this way likely because saying that you disclosed confidential information would be a legally stronger reason to fire you, but the real reason is PR. No business owner wants their employees to publicly talk about their product as inferior, and not just in the current version, but in the version TBD.
7/31
@BenjaminDEKR
In your scenario they lied to me about the reason instead of just being direct + truthful
If so, that's why I resigned.
8/31
@CreatedByJannn
you literally ranked Grok 3 alongside competitors and it is not even released. Huge red flag for an internal team member to be posting something like that.
and they even offered you to delete the tweet, how on earth do you think you are in the right?
9/31
@BenjaminDEKR
TBD
10/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Grok 3 Official acknowledgement on xAI Blog
11/31
@BasedBeffJezos
I think it's the fact that you leaked expected benchmarks with the ordering.
12/31
@BenjaminDEKR
- That's not the reason they gave me, and also
- these are not benchmarks these are my random opinions / wild guess
that's why I labeled it "opinion" and "TBD"
13/31
@BorisMPower
Surely expressing an opinion on the performance of an unreleased model which you only had access to through working at xAI is against company policies (?)
14/31
@BenjaminDEKR
This was my random opinion of guess not based on any data, which they know. (Because they know what project I was on or wasn't on.)
Also, it was repeatedly (in writing) told to me that it was saying "Grok 3 - TBD" that was the issue. Literally acknowledging that Grok 3 exists.
15/31
@Andercot
Here's what o1 pro had to say about this
16/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Oh I didn't say they didn't have the RIGHT to do it
I said it was absurd and ridiculous and I resigned.
17/31
@StephenPiment
FWIW, Apple has rules just as strict as this for employees, and they enforce them. Doesn’t matter if you think they make sense; they will fire you for violation.
So not just an xAI thing.
18/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Okay, I don't want to work for Apple
19/31
@rajuvamsi007
You are an employee and should do what your employer asks - as long as it's not illegal to do.
This is nothing to do with free speech.
20/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Well they're not my employer anymore so problem solved.
21/31
@fareesh
you posted something that others could easily misunderstand to be a benchmark of an unreleased model
22/31
@BenjaminDEKR
(My opinion) is not a benchmark
23/31
@johnwlockwoodiv
You work there dude. It doesn’t matter if you if you actually have any data or info on it, we presume you do have some insider knowledge for which you used to come to your opinion and now you are setting an expectation with the public.
24/31
@yardtex
Any rookie developer would not reveal information like you did. I would not hire you in my team either. You may want to change careers and do something else.
25/31
@Deb8822
Difference is that Elon's choice of when and how to tease his company's product is his to make, not an employees. Basic stuff really.
26/31
@ovidbme
I really hope you see how you are lying to yourself. It’s super obvious as to why. Not saying I would have done the same but I wouldn’t be very pleased to your ranking of an unreleased product..
27/31
@3percentT
Well, you're
28/31
@wordsandmotions
Your OP ranks your employer's yet-to-be-released product, which you're directly working on, below a competitor's.
It screams saboteur, my friend. All the best in your future endeavors (likely your own business cos your writeup is a red flag).
29/31
@GrippoSkier
Honestly, this is standard practice for corporations now. You cannot post information about your business vs competitors with any insider information, even if it is a ‘personal statement’
That personal statement is using inside information that the public does not have and you most likely violated your employment contract trade secrets, IP, or business intelligence clause.
They have specific departments for managing public relations on new products.
Example:
Everyone know car company F has a new car coming, can every person who works at company F start posting how they think it will stack up to company T or G? That hurts their advertising and it violates the employment contract. Maybe their info is wrong and it gives the illusion that the product is closer and not as good than it really is.
30/31
@Atlbeachchick
31/31
@AtomicNavar33
I actually wonder if this was outright malicious. He was about to get fired anyway or had a political axe to grind.
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
@BenjaminDEKR
I resigned from xAI tonight.
It makes me very sad, but was the right thing to do -- and here's why.
xAI told me I either had to delete the post quoted below, or face being fired.
After reviewing everything and thinking a lot, I've decided that I'm not going to delete the post -- which is very clearly a harmless personal opinion.
Why did they tell me to remove this opinion? Well, according to them, the reason is that I acknowledged that Grok 3... exists.
I wish I was joking. I'm not. That's the reason -- the fact that I wrote "Grok 3 (TBD)" is grounds for being fired.
But wait, hasn't Grok 3 been officially acknowledged by xAI? Yes. Yes it has.
I'll post below the official xAI blog post talking about Grok 3, along with many public Elon posts and video where it is repeatedly acknowledged.
To be clear, the post they wanted me to remove is 100% just my personal opinion. I do not know where Grok 3 will stack up against other SOTA models. Hopefully it does well, I don't know. That's why it says "opinion" and "to be determined."
It will probably be pretty good at some things and imperfect at others. I didn't think this was a particularly wild opinion.
Again, their official demand said that even writing "Grok 3 - TBD" is somehow "confidential information." This is absolutely absurd, since it's repeatedly been acknowledged by the company and its famous CEO.
Are they mad that my clearly-labeled opinion didn't guess that the still-unreleased Grok 3 will be higher? Maybe. Probably. Again, maybe it is at the top, I genuinely don't know. That's why it says "to be determined."
The specific feature of Grok I spent the majority of my time working on with a really hard-working team is very cool and I hope it works extremely well for everyone. I won't say what it is because that would be **actual** confidential information. (Maybe after it comes out.)
I still hope Elon and xAI win. Yet......
It's very disappointing to me that a company and leaders who supposedly champion free speech and openness would try to fire a low-level employee over a clearly-labeled opinion that contains absolutely nothing controversial, but here we are.
The entire situation has been very strange. I thought about just deleting the damn thing.... But you know, once you start caving and giving up holding mild personal opinions, the slope becomes very slippery.
I'll keep my speech and dignity and get another job, or build one. Catch ya on the flip side.
[Quoted tweet]
The ranking currently (my opinion), for code:
ChatGPT o1-pro
o1
o3-mini
(all kind of tied)
Grok 3 (expected, tbd)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
DeepSeek
GPT-4o
Grok 2
Gemini 2.0 Pro Series (might be higher, will probably move up)
2/31
@BenjaminDEKR
3/31
@BenjaminDEKR
4/31
@elonmusk
That’s weird
5/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Pretty weird
6/31
@burkov
From reading your original post, it's clear what's wrong with it. You work on Grok, as you say, and you already put the product, which isn't yet released, below its competitors. They don't tell you that this way likely because saying that you disclosed confidential information would be a legally stronger reason to fire you, but the real reason is PR. No business owner wants their employees to publicly talk about their product as inferior, and not just in the current version, but in the version TBD.
7/31
@BenjaminDEKR
In your scenario they lied to me about the reason instead of just being direct + truthful
If so, that's why I resigned.
8/31
@CreatedByJannn
you literally ranked Grok 3 alongside competitors and it is not even released. Huge red flag for an internal team member to be posting something like that.
and they even offered you to delete the tweet, how on earth do you think you are in the right?
9/31
@BenjaminDEKR
TBD
10/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Grok 3 Official acknowledgement on xAI Blog
11/31
@BasedBeffJezos
I think it's the fact that you leaked expected benchmarks with the ordering.
12/31
@BenjaminDEKR
- That's not the reason they gave me, and also
- these are not benchmarks these are my random opinions / wild guess
that's why I labeled it "opinion" and "TBD"
13/31
@BorisMPower
Surely expressing an opinion on the performance of an unreleased model which you only had access to through working at xAI is against company policies (?)
14/31
@BenjaminDEKR
This was my random opinion of guess not based on any data, which they know. (Because they know what project I was on or wasn't on.)
Also, it was repeatedly (in writing) told to me that it was saying "Grok 3 - TBD" that was the issue. Literally acknowledging that Grok 3 exists.
15/31
@Andercot
Here's what o1 pro had to say about this
16/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Oh I didn't say they didn't have the RIGHT to do it
I said it was absurd and ridiculous and I resigned.
17/31
@StephenPiment
FWIW, Apple has rules just as strict as this for employees, and they enforce them. Doesn’t matter if you think they make sense; they will fire you for violation.
So not just an xAI thing.
18/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Okay, I don't want to work for Apple
19/31
@rajuvamsi007
You are an employee and should do what your employer asks - as long as it's not illegal to do.
This is nothing to do with free speech.
20/31
@BenjaminDEKR
Well they're not my employer anymore so problem solved.
21/31
@fareesh
you posted something that others could easily misunderstand to be a benchmark of an unreleased model
22/31
@BenjaminDEKR
(My opinion) is not a benchmark
23/31
@johnwlockwoodiv
You work there dude. It doesn’t matter if you if you actually have any data or info on it, we presume you do have some insider knowledge for which you used to come to your opinion and now you are setting an expectation with the public.
24/31
@yardtex
Any rookie developer would not reveal information like you did. I would not hire you in my team either. You may want to change careers and do something else.
25/31
@Deb8822
Difference is that Elon's choice of when and how to tease his company's product is his to make, not an employees. Basic stuff really.
26/31
@ovidbme
I really hope you see how you are lying to yourself. It’s super obvious as to why. Not saying I would have done the same but I wouldn’t be very pleased to your ranking of an unreleased product..
27/31
@3percentT
Well, you're
28/31
@wordsandmotions
Your OP ranks your employer's yet-to-be-released product, which you're directly working on, below a competitor's.
It screams saboteur, my friend. All the best in your future endeavors (likely your own business cos your writeup is a red flag).
29/31
@GrippoSkier
Honestly, this is standard practice for corporations now. You cannot post information about your business vs competitors with any insider information, even if it is a ‘personal statement’
That personal statement is using inside information that the public does not have and you most likely violated your employment contract trade secrets, IP, or business intelligence clause.
They have specific departments for managing public relations on new products.
Example:
Everyone know car company F has a new car coming, can every person who works at company F start posting how they think it will stack up to company T or G? That hurts their advertising and it violates the employment contract. Maybe their info is wrong and it gives the illusion that the product is closer and not as good than it really is.
30/31
@Atlbeachchick
31/31
@AtomicNavar33
I actually wonder if this was outright malicious. He was about to get fired anyway or had a political axe to grind.
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
Elon Musk’s xAI releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3 | TechCrunch
Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, released its latest flagship AI model, Grok 3, on Monday, along with new capabilities in the Grok app for iOS and the web.
techcrunch.com
Elon Musk’s xAI releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3
Kyle Wiggers
7:46 PM PST · February 17, 2025
Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, late on Monday released its latest flagship AI model, Grok 3, and unveiled new capabilities for the Grok iOS and web apps.
Grok, xAI’s answer to models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini, can analyze images and respond to questions, and powers a number of features on Musk’s social network, X. Grok 3, which has been in development for several months, was optimistically slated for release in 2024, but missed that deadline.
Monday’s is an ambitious launch.
xAI has been using an enormous data center in Memphis containing around 200,000 GPUs to train Grok 3. In a post on X, Musk claimed Grok 3 was developed with “10x” (or so) more computing power than its predecessor, Grok 2, using an expanded training set that includes filings from court cases — and more.
“Grok 3 is an order of magnitude more capable than Grok 2,” Musk said during a live-streamed presentation on Monday. “[It’s a] maximally truth-seeking AI, even if that truth is sometimes at odds with what is politically correct.”
Grok 3 is a family of models, to be precise. A smaller version of Grok 3, Grok 3 mini, responds to questions more quickly at the cost of some accuracy. Not all the models and related features of Grok 3 are available yet (some are in beta), but they began rolling out on Monday.
xAI claims Grok 3 beats GPT-4o on benchmarks including AIME (which evaluates a model’s performance on a sampling of math questions) and GPQA (which assesses models using PhD-level physics, biology, and chemistry problems). An early version of Grok 3 also scored competitively in Chatbot Arena, a crowdsourced test that pits different AI models against each other and has users vote on their preferred responses, according to xAI.
Two models in the new Grok 3 family, Grok 3 Reasoning and Grok 3 mini Reasoning, can carefully “think through” problems, similar to “reasoning” models like OpenAI’s o3-mini and Chinese AI company DeepSeek’s R1. Reasoning models try to fact-check themselves before giving out results, which helps them avoid some of the pitfalls that normally trip up models.
xAI claims that Grok 3 Reasoning surpasses the best version of o3-mini — o3-mini-high — on several popular benchmarks, including a newer mathematics benchmark called AIME 2025.
These reasoning models can be accessed via the Grok app. Users can ask Grok 3 to “Think,” or — for more difficult queries — leverage “Big Brain” mode for reasoning that employs additional computing. xAI describes the reasoning models as best suited for mathematics, science, and programming questions.
Musk said some of the reasoning models’ “thoughts” are obscured in the Grok app to prevent distillation, a method used by AI model developers to extract knowledge from other models. Recently, DeepSeek was accused of distilling OpenAI’s models to create its own.
Grok’s reasoning models underpin a new feature in the Grok app called DeepSearch, xAI’s answer to AI-powered research tools like OpenAI’s deep research. DeepSearch scans the internet and X to analyze information and deliver an abstract in response to a question.
Subscribers to X’s Premium+ tier ($50 per month) will get access to Grok 3 first, and other features will be gated behind a new plan that xAI’s calling SuperGrok. Priced at $30 per month or $300 per year (if leaks are to be believed), SuperGrok unlocks additional reasoning and DeepSearch queries, and throws in unlimited image generation.
In the future — as soon as about a week from now — the Grok app will gain a “voice mode,” Musk said, which will give Grok models a synthesized voice. A few weeks after that, Grok 3 models will be available via xAI’s enterprise API, along with the DeepSearch capability.
xAI plans to open-source Grok 2 in the coming months, Musk said.
“Our general approach is that we will open-source the last version [of Grok] when the next version is fully out,” he continued. “When Grok 3 is mature and stable, which is probably within a few months, then we’ll open-source Grok 2.”
When Musk announced Grok roughly two years ago, he pitched the AI model as edgy, unfiltered, and anti-“woke” — in general, willing to answer controversial questions other AI systems won’t. He delivered on some of that promise. Told to be vulgar, for example, Grok and Grok 2 would happily oblige, spewing colorful language you likely wouldn’t hear from ChatGPT.
But Grok models prior to Grok 3 hedged on political subjects and wouldn’t cross certain boundaries. In fact, one study found that Grok leaned to the political left on topics like transgender rights, diversity programs, and inequality.
Musk has blamed the behavior on Grok’s training data — public web pages — and pledged to “shift Grok closer to politically neutral.” It’s not yet clear whether xAI has achieved that goal, and what the consequences might be.
The Prince of All Saiyans
Formerly Jisoo Stan & @Twitter
Dental plan
Okay some explanation before the misinformation/drama gets out of hand.
cons@64: stands for consensus@64 where the model generates 64 answers and the final answer is the one that was generated the most frequent
pass@64: the model gets the point if any one of its 64 answers are correct
The point isnt that xAI should not report cons@64 - they should since openai does so too in the exact same manner. There is nothing wrong/shady here. The point is that it is not a full apples to apples comparison if the other models was just a single attempt which is assumed to be the case since the blog post did not specify a cons@64 number.
Also, AIME is 30 questions so trying to draw conclusions that model A > B because A scores 3/4% higher is pointless since its a 1 question difference. It makes more sense to draw conclusions based on tiers instead.
Important context from nrehiew_.
cons@64: stands for consensus@64 where the model generates 64 answers and the final answer is the one that was generated the most frequent
pass@64: the model gets the point if any one of its 64 answers are correct
The point isnt that xAI should not report cons@64 - they should since openai does so too in the exact same manner. There is nothing wrong/shady here. The point is that it is not a full apples to apples comparison if the other models was just a single attempt which is assumed to be the case since the blog post did not specify a cons@64 number.
Also, AIME is 30 questions so trying to draw conclusions that model A > B because A scores 3/4% higher is pointless since its a 1 question difference. It makes more sense to draw conclusions based on tiers instead.
Important context from nrehiew_.