Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has unveiled its latest chatbot, Grok 3, aiming to challenge industry leaders like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and China’s DeepSeek. Musk has touted Grok 3 as “scary smart,” with ten times the computational power of its predecessor, released in August last year. The chatbot, trained on synthetic data, incorporates self-correction mechanisms to reduce errors, commonly referred to as “hallucinations.”
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“Grok 3 has very powerful reasoning capabilities,” Musk said during a video call at the World Governments Summit in Dubai. “In the tests that we’ve done so far, Grok 3 is outperforming anything that’s been released, that we’re aware of.” Initially, Grok 3 will be available only to Premium+ subscribers of X, formerly known as Twitter, which Musk acquired in 2022. A wider rollout is expected in the future.
A Crowded AI Battlefield
Grok 3 enters a fiercely competitive AI landscape, where nations and companies are racing to develop more advanced and cost-effective models. Last month, Chinese startup DeepSeek disrupted the industry by launching its R1 chatbot, a low-cost alternative that challenges U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence.
The U.S.-China AI rivalry has intensified, with Washington growing increasingly wary of Beijing’s advancements in the field. The rise of DeepSeek has prompted concerns over potential security risks and intellectual property competition, leading to regulatory scrutiny in several countries.
Musk vs. Altman: A Growing Rivalry
Grok 3’s release also reignites Musk’s long-standing rivalry with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk was one of OpenAI’s 11 co-founders in 2015, investing $45 million to counter Google’s dominance in AI. However, he left the company in 2018, and in 2022, OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT reshaped the AI landscape—without Musk at its center. Since then, tensions between Musk and Altman have escalated. Last week, OpenAI’s board rejected a Musk-led bid to acquire the company for nearly $100 billion, further fueling their competition.
Trump’s Role in the AI Race
The launch of Grok 3 comes amid Musk’s growing influence in the U.S. government. As a close adviser to President Donald Trump, Musk has been given broad powers to restructure and dismantle federal agencies as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
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Critics argue that Musk’s proximity to the White House raises serious conflict-of-interest concerns, as he plays a role in shaping AI regulations while leading a major AI company. Meanwhile, Trump has placed technology at the center of his administration, with AI development and infrastructure among his key priorities.