February 20, 2025 – In a highly anticipated rollout, xAI, the AI venture led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has launched Grok 3, its latest flagship artificial intelligence model. Unveiled during a livestream event on Musk’s social media platform X on February 18, 2025, Grok 3 is being hailed as a groundbreaking advancement in AI technology, with claims of outperforming industry giants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and China’s DeepSeek V3 across multiple benchmarks.
A Leap Forward in AI Capabilities
Musk, speaking at the launch event, described Grok 3 as “scary smart” and “an order of magnitude more capable than Grok 2,” its predecessor released just months ago. Built with a staggering 10 to 15 times the computational power of Grok 2—thanks to xAI’s new data center in Memphis equipped with 200,000 GPUs—Grok 3 promises unparalleled performance in reasoning, mathematics, science, and coding tasks. The company showcased benchmark results positioning Grok 3 at the top of the leaderboard, with scores of 52 in math (AIME), 75 in science (GPOA), and 57 in coding (LCB), surpassing rivals like OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5.
A standout feature is Grok 3’s reasoning capabilities, available through two modes: “Think” for quick, efficient problem-solving, and “Big Brain” for tackling complex queries with enhanced computational depth. Users can even peek into the AI’s thought process as it generates responses, a transparency feature Musk touted as a unique selling point. Additionally, xAI introduced “DeepSearch,” a next-generation search tool powered by Grok 3, designed to deliver comprehensive, citation-backed reports—a direct shot at competitors like OpenAI and Perplexity.
Availability and Pricing Shake-Up
Grok 3 is immediately accessible to X Premium+ subscribers, now priced at $40 to $50 per month in the U.S. following a significant hike announced hours after the launch. This doubling of the subscription cost—from $20 to nearly $50—has sparked debate online, with some seeing it as a bold move to capitalize on Grok 3’s hype. A standalone “SuperGrok” subscription through the Grok app also offers access to advanced features like Voice Mode, catering to users beyond the X ecosystem. Musk hinted at broader availability, stating on X that Grok 3 is “free until our servers melt,” though rate limits apply for non-subscribers.
A Competitive AI Landscape
The timing of Grok 3’s release is no coincidence. It comes amid fierce competition in the AI sector, with OpenAI preparing GPT-4.5 and DeepSeek’s recent R1 model raising eyebrows for its efficiency. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before parting ways, appears determined to reclaim a leading edge in the AI race. During the launch, he reiterated xAI’s mission to “advance our collective understanding of the universe,” while promising to open-source Grok 2 in the coming months once Grok 3 stabilizes—a nod to the growing trend of transparency in AI development.
Early reactions from tech experts are mixed but promising. Andrej Karpathy, ex-OpenAI co-founder, called Grok 3’s reasoning “state-of-the-art” after initial testing, while posts on X from developers and enthusiasts praised its performance. However, some skepticism remains, with critics noting that xAI’s benchmarks lack independent verification, and a report from Adversa AI revealed that a jailbroken Grok 3 could bypass safety guardrails, raising ethical concerns.
Musk’s Vision in Focus
Grok 3 also reflects Musk’s personal touch. A screenshot he shared on X showed the AI lambasting legacy media as “garbage” while praising X as a source of “raw, unfiltered news,” prompting speculation that Grok 3 may echo Musk’s worldview. Whether this “based” persona—slang for unapologetically opinionated—helps or hinders its adoption remains to be seen.
As the dust settles, Grok 3 has undeniably grabbed the spotlight, trending heavily on X and dominating tech headlines. With plans to integrate it into X’s ecosystem and release it to developers via API soon, xAI is betting big on this model to redefine AI’s role in daily life. For now, the world’s eyes are on Musk’s latest creation—smart, bold, and unmistakably his.
