TechCapsules

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

Elon Musk has officially confirmed that Grok 4, the latest version of xAI's large language model, will launch on July 9. The rollout will be accompanied by a livestream event at 8 p.m. Pacific Time, hosted on xAI's official account on X. In a surprise move, xAI appears to have skipped the development of Grok 3.5, which was initially rumored to be the next iteration of the language model. Instead, the artificial intelligence startup is focusing on the fourth iteration, Grok 4. This move comes as AI competition intensifies between major players including OpenAI, Google, and xAI. With Musk's Colossus supercomputer fully operational in Memphis, xAI appears to be accelerating its AI product roadmap. The launch of Grok 4 also follows a recent controversy involving political bias. Last week, Grok responded to a user on X stating that political violence in the U.S. since 2016 had come more from the political right than the left. The chatbot noted that its answer was based on information from sources like Reuters, the Journal of Democracy, and University of Maryland studies. Musk stated that Grok's response was a "major fail." "Major fail, as this is objectively false. Grok is parroting legacy media. Working on it," he wrote in a post on X. By the end of June, Musk noted that he was "grinding all night with the xAI team" and that they were making "good progress." He also stated that the model "Will be called Grok 4. Release just after July 4th. Needs one more big run for a specialized coding model." Grok 4's launch is expected to address these issues, with Musk pushing the language model towards political neutrality. The livestream event on July 9 is expected to provide more information on the new features and capabilities of Grok 4.