xai – Teknotum

SpaceXAI releases Grok 4.6, on level with GPT-5.6 Sol at half the price

Grok has gone from beating the last generation frontier to current gen in about a month. (Picture: generated)

A little more than a month after releasing Grok 4.5, that competed mainly on price for GPT-5.5-level performance, SpaceXAI is out with a successor that ups the ante.

The new model reaches parity with GPT-5.6 Sol on the Artificial Analysis benchmark of benchmarks, going from ninth to fourth on the leaderboard, and it also beats Sol on several benches on the Grok presentation.

SpaceXAI claims this proves «frontier level performance,» and it does come in striking distance to the latest state-of-the-art model Opus 5. Considering that GPT Astra is due shortly, this might be a short-lived claim, however.

The new Grok was trained on a «wide range of agentic tasks,» not to mention the corpus of real-word sessions from Cursor, with a focus on knowledge work and general coding.

It is supposedly especially good at «turning a broad product idea into a working first version,» which can then be iterated upon. It is also proficient on long-running, complex tasks and creative visual work, SpaceXAI says.

The main selling point of the model is undoubtedly going to be price/performance, starting at $2 per million input tokens and $6 out, it is astoundingly cheap to run. Prices for GPT-5.6 Sol are $5 for input and $30 for output, which works out at more than twice the input price and 5x on output. Grok 4.6 also has a faster version at double the cost.

The model is out now, and can be found on Cursor, Grok Build and in the API.

Read more: SpaceXAI’s presentation and launch post, Musk on costs, Artificial Analysis rundown, Gizmodo. Discussion on Hacker News and r/Singularity.

SpaceXAI launches Grok Bot, a user-friendly end-to-end agent platform

Coworkers, not agents. SpaceXAI are marketing Grok Bot as an end-to-end productivity tool. (Picture: SpaceXAI)

The app launch talks about coworkers and teammates, not agents and handlers, that you can delegate work to. The «bots» then finish their tasks from start to finish with minimal intervention.

The bots/agents have their own computer in the cloud, like Anthropic’s Cowork and OpenAI’s Work and Codex, and can work across your apps, tools, and websites and use apps with no API or MCP access.

You should be able to talk to them like a fellow worker and delegate entire workflows, from processing invoices in Gmail to adding transcripts and follow-ups in a CRM. There are several workflow demos on x.ai.

To start off with the bots, you just let them monitor your workflow, which they save as routines, and have them do it precisely as you would the next time.

SpaceXAI is internally raving about the product, saying the agents function just like coworkers you can hand real work to, that doesn’t need micromanagement, and works 24/7. They are using it for outbound sales, marketing campaigns, office operations, and, of course, bug fixes.

Grok Bot is available in beta today for users of SuperGrok Heavy (at $300/month), Cursor Ultra (at $200/month), and Cursor Teams Premium (at $120 per user/month). It can be downloaded for macOS, iOS, Windows, and Linux.

Read more: SpaceXAI’s presentation and demos. Writeups on VentureBeat, MacRumors, and 9to5Mac.

A new Grok 4.5 is out, competing on price and efficiency

The latest Grok is more efficient than other frontier models, at less than half the cost. (Picture: generated)

The latest model from SpaceXAI, previously X.ai, compares well to Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 on benchmarks, but where it really shines is on token efficiency and cost.

The model was trained on «tens of thousands of GB300 GPUs» with a particular focus on per-token intelligence, leading to 4.2x lower token use than Opus 4.8 on the same tasks.

The model otherwise does what you would expect of a modern AI, being proficient in coding, science, engineering and math — along with doing complex models in Excel and navigating PowerPoint and Word.

The second standout performance for the model is the price, ticking in at merely $2 per million input tokens and $6 for a million in output.

Compare this to Claude Opus 4.8 at $5 per million inputs and $25 for a million out at twice the token use and slower speed, and Grok starts looking reasonable.

The model was developed in collaboration with recently acquired Cursor and is available on all their plans, as well as in Grok Build and the SpaceXAI console, but not in Europe, where it is expected to launch in mid-July.

Read more: SpaceXAI’s presentation, Elon Musk’s X post 1, post 2. Writeups on TechCrunch and Gizmodo. Discussion on r/Singularity and Hacker News.

xAI owner SpaceX publicly files for IPO, gets $15 billion per year from Anthropic

SpaceX is a history making IPO, but its AI efforts are loss leaders. (Picture: SpaceX)

The company is mostly known for its space endeavors, like shipping crew and cargo to the International Space Station, deploying satellites, and its Starlink service — but SpaceX merged with x.com and xAI just this February.

Back then, the combined company was valued at $1.25 trillion, and it’s IPO is expected to be the largest in history — in addition to being the first major AI lab to go public, as a small test of market appetite.

SpaceX spent 60% of its $20 billion in capital expenditures on its xAI division in 2025, while losing billions and only seeing growth of about 22%, TechCrunch writes.

In another TechCrunch report, they note from the filing that xAI lost about $6.5 billion in 2025, and is making $365 million in subscriptions together with x.com.

What xAI does have is massive compute resources, which Anthropic is renting for $15 billion per year, Axios reports — and they are looking to expand more.

While the IPO might be tempting for a whole host of reasons, Elon Musk will retain a supermajority in the company from his 85% stock ownership, NBC News says.

Read more: The SEC filing, CNBC, Reuters, TechCrunch on capex, TechCrunch on losses, and Axios on the Anthropic deal.

Anthropic grew 80-fold last quarter, secures compute deal with SpaceX

Power hungry: Anthropic’s growth has been off the charts last quarter. (Picture: generated)

The AI lab was preparing for its usual 10x growth rate this quarter, but the numbers made a huge, unexpected jump, CNBC reports

— That is the reason we have had difficulties with compute, says CEO Dario Amodei, revealing their strain on infrastructure since at least April.

The company has now made a deal with SpaceX for instant access to their entire Colossus 1 supercomputer, consisting of some 220,000 Nvidia GPUs, totaling more than 300 megawatts.

Using all of that capacity should immediately improve access for Anthropic’s users, and they are already doubling rate limits for the Pro and Max plans, and is «considerably» increasing API rates, while removing «peak hours» restrictions.

Elon Musk says he approved the deal after evaluating Anthropic’s altruism, that xAI will be known as SpaceXAI and that they have already moved Grok training to the Colossus 2 cluster.

xAI agrees to Pentagon contract where Anthropic won’t

It’s unclear whether xAI will be able to fully replace Anthropic inside the Pentagon. (Picture: generated)

xAI models will become available in the Pentagon’s classified networks after having agreed to the «all lawful use» contract, Axios reports.

That means no restrictions on mass surveillance and autonomous lethality that Anthropic refused due to ethical concerns.

It’s not immediately clear whether xAI will be able to replace all Anthropic functions or how soon it can come online, Axios says.

Anthropic is due for a meeting with Secretary Pete Hegseth this Tuesday, where he is expected to present CEO Dario Amodei with an ultimatum to lift its safeguards or be banned.

ChatGPT and Gemini are available on the Pentagon’s unclassified networks, but onboarding them to the classified parts would take time, and dropping Anthropic would be a difficult process, sources tell Axios.

Read more: Axios, New York Times (paywalled). See also Tag: Grok.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX merges with xAI to build data centers in space

SpaceX will now be tasked with building orbital data centers, Elon Musk says. (Picture: SpaceX)

After a tumultuous week of rumor and hearsay, Musk’s space company is merging with his artificial intelligence company — that merged with x.com in March, 2025.

Musk himself is out with a long-winded mission statement of sorts today, where he presses the need to build AI factories in space, to «harness the sun’s energy.»

Musk reckons this will be the only viable way to build data centers within 2-3 years, saying they are cheaper and more environmentally friendly, and also has plans for «self-growing bases on the Moon.»

The merger sets a new M&A record, and the new company will become the largest privately held corporation in existence, with a net worth of $1.25 trillion. There are also plans for a market debut with a value of $1.5 trillion later this year, writes Reuters.

Read more: Musk’s statement, Reuters, The Verge.

Grok on X produced an estimated 3 million sexualized images in free-for-all

X has restricted «undressing» pictures, but investigations remain. (Picture: generated)

During the period from the initial launch of the editing feature on December 29th to its paywalling on January 9th, X.com became «an industrial-scale machine» for production of sexual abuse material, writes The Guardian.

The 3 million pictures produced means an average of 190 images per minute, and a sexualized picture of children every 41 seconds, Engadget reports.

This was revealed by a study from Center for Countering Digital Hate, which analyzed 20,000 images from the total and extrapolated the figure for all days using AI.

After an outrage from most corners of the globe, X decided to «technically block» the feature even for paying customers on January 14th.

X.com is still under investigation over the matter from a whole host of countries and U.S. states, including California, The U.K. and Korea, to name a few.

Read more: The actual study, comments from The Guardian, writeup by Engadget.

Musk runs into a snag on data center gas turbines — they are now illegal

xAI fits gas turbines on flatbed trucks and calls them «temporary» to avoid regulation. No more, says the EPA. (Picture: generated)

Apparently, a new EPA rule on stationary and «temporary» gas turbines for energy generation has made them illegal, according to CNBC.

They produce much too high levels of nitrogen oxides, and must be regulated as combustion engines, the EPA says.

That means Musk’s and xAI’s Colossus plant will have to rethink their energy use, as they make widespread use of natural gas turbines to generate electricity for their facilities.

They will basically have to get Clean Air Act permits, and prove they aren’t harmful.

The local population have long been complaining of a rotten-egg-like stench in the atmosphere, CNBC writes, and smog is supposedly prevalent.

xAI uses 15 turbines for Colossus 1 and at one point had 59 turbines for Colossus 2, The Guardian writes.

Read more: The EPA Rule. Writeups on CNBC, Gizmodo and The Guardian.

xAI moves to technically block non-consensual «undressing» edits

Turning real people into pinups is officially over on x.com. (Picture: generated)

xAI’s «Safety»-account has posted a long screed on non-consensual sexualized content delivered through the @Grok account — and it intends to block it:

— We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers, the post says.

That basically means the fountain is shut off for the controversial «undressing» pictures on the platform for good, and not just limited to paying users. It’s off, period.

It further says that all image generation and edits will only be available to paying subscribers, making it possible to trace any violations to real people.

They also say they are now geoblocking risqué images in countries where such content is illegal.

That’s what concerted international pressure can do. Watchdogs and attorneys general across the world were only just starting their investigations into Grok and xAI, and it had already been blocked in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Read more: Ars Technica, BBC.

After uproar, Grok «limits» image generations to paying subscribers on x.com

The new message you get when you try to undress women on x.com. (Picture: screenshot)

As of this morning, xAI’s chatbot Grok is posting this response to all image generation prompts — and there are about twenty per minute of them.

The response seems to be related to the much maligned «undressing» feature of the bot, supressing use via the @Grok prompt, but letting people use it on the edit-button on all images uploaded to x.com, The Verge reports.

Continue reading “After uproar, Grok «limits» image generations to paying subscribers on x.com”

xAI closes $20 billion funding round, says Grok 5 in training

Grok is no stranger to controversy, but it sure raises a lot of money for xAI. (Picture: xAI)

The money overshoots their $15 billion target, and comes from regular and strategic investors combined. The latter would be Nvidia and Cisco Investments, who also contribute hardware for their data center expansions.

The cash will go to infrastructure buildout — which now includes over 1 million «H100 equivalents» — to facilitate the rollout of future models, and xAI says in their release that Grok 5 is «currently in training.»

They also reveal that Grok has around 600 million monthly active users across x.com and the Grok app.

Grok may be popular, especially on x.com, but it does cut corners to get there, from sex-crazed companions to recently letting users «undress» real women posting selfies to x.com.

This round of funding should value the company somewhere north of $230 billion, writes CNBC

Read more: xAI’s release, writeups on CNBC, Reuters, TechCrunch.

Grok unleashes flood of sexually edited images of women on x.com

With a new edit button for images, it has been easy to flood x.com with “undressed” images. (Picture: x.ai)

After last week’s rollout of an edit-button for Grok on images posted to X.com, users all across the spectrum have used it to undress pictures of unassuming women of all ages, sometimes crossing into CSAM territory.

The feature is not new, but the button is. Grok’s «Imagine» has had it since launch in August, and it was popularized with undressing Taylor Swift shortly after.

Continue reading “Grok unleashes flood of sexually edited images of women on x.com”

Elon Musk says xAI has purchased third Colossus building, aiming for 2 GW

xAI’s third building will allow them to reach 1 million GPUs, reports say. (Picture: Adobe/generated)

Elon Musk just announced the purchase of the third building in Colossus complex in Memphis, Tennessee, which they say is the largest supercomputer in the world.

2 gigawatts of compute power might seem small when considering OpenAI’s potential 36 GW footprint, but xAI trained the very capable Grok 4 on just a little over one GW’s worth of Nvidia chips.

The plan is to expand Colossus to house at least 1 million GPUs, Reuters reports, and adds that the new data center is close to a natural gas plant that xAI is building in the area.

The name of the building will be MACROHARDRR, according to Elon Musk.

Read more: Bloomberg (paywalled), and Reuters. Musk’s tweet.

xAI launches Grok 4.1; faster and less likely to hallucinate

In stealthily rolling out the latest Grok iteration, xAI found ~65% of users preferred the new bot, which also currently tops the leaderboard for Lmarena – text with about ten points.

— Our 4.1 model is exceptionally capable in creative, emotional, and collaborative interactions, xAI writes on their launch page, and adds:

— It is more perceptive to nuanced intent, compelling to speak with, and coherent in personality, while fully retaining the razor-sharp intelligence and reliability of its predecessors.

This is pursuant to the launch of GPT-5.1 last week; labs are working a lot more on personality for their bots, and want their chatbots to be good at actually chatting.

In addition, the new bot boasts of far lower hallucinations, dropping from 12% for Grok 4 to 4.22% for 4.1, and should also be a lot faster.

The Verge notes that the bot seems to carry on the laissez-faire rules of its predecessors, opening up to NSFW use cases, although it hasn’t gone full mecha-Hitler yet.

Read more: xAI’s launch page, note on The Verge.