In light of Elon Musk unveiling xAI’s Grok 3, Dr Richard Whittle, University Fellow, University of Salford’s Business School, comments: “The potential of a takeover of OpenAI by Elon Musk will give many institutions pause for thought. A technological infrastructure which is rapidly being incorporated into schools, universities and the public sector, could rapidly change and Musk’s transformation of Twitter to X may be an indicator of where OpenAI could go. A ‘Twitterfication’ of OpenAI may rewrite the rules on its use and outputs.
“However, it may have been that Musk’s offer for OpenAI was designed to slow its transition to profit making. Musk may simply have been playing for time, given he has today unveiled xAI’s latest model, Grok 3, which was initially supposed to have been available from December 2024. Musk claims his new model is the “smartest AI on earth,” with xAI declaring that Grok 3 beats OpenAI’s offerings on a variety of tests.
“Grok 3 is xAI’s chance to compete against the market leaders, Open AI, Anthropic and Google. It appears to have impressive performance, but comparable to market leaders. It will likely be pricing models, rather than AI capability, which will determine if Grok 3 succeeds as a true challenger to established heavy hitters in this space.
“It certainly seems that the AI race is accelerating. The launch of DeepSeek’s R1 model in late January, which provides a (reportedly) cheaper process to develop premium level models, sent shock waves through the American dominant AI industry. Commentators described it as a Sputnik moment which may catalyse AI firms to more rapid development. However, Grok 3 has impressive capabilities – though with training that required a significant 200,000 GPUs (graphics processing units) – other AI firms will develop new offerings to keep up. We may look back to see DeepSeek and Grok 3 as significant milestones where AI development jumped further and higher.”
Dr Gordon Fletcher, Associate Dean: Research and Innovation at the University of Salford’s Business School, added: “Grok 3, the newest foundational AI model has been released. According to Musk it is 'scary smart,' ten times more powerful and the 'smartest AI on Earth,' but also still 'beta'.
“Some commentators are even claiming - somewhat overly enthusiastically - that artificial general intelligence (AGI) has been reached. Benchmark tests more modestly suggest that this model does compare favourably against the OpenAI and Anthropic models as well as newcomer, Deepseek. But, like the recent AI statements from Keir Starmer and Donald Trump, the announcement feels rushed and appears to anticipate similar statements coming from rivals.
“OpenAI has already hinted at the capability of its new version releases and there are similar expectations for the Claude models. While AGI might be a goal for these companies, the shorter objectives is the age-old fight for eyeballs. Consumers who regularly use a model will tend to stick to the one they know the best - and already subscribe to. New models are a chance to shake up personal preferences to get a bigger audience. A battle that mirrors the days of TV and radio ratings.
“With Musk's personality driven promotion of X and his close and contentious ties to the US presidency, there is a commercial imperative to retain users. The evidence of declining Tesla sales in Europe is not a situation that he (or his accountants) will want to be repeated across his digital properties.”
