Sundar Pichai Reacts to Grok 4 Launch as xAI Unveils Its Most Powerful AI Yet

Highlights

Elon Musk’s xAI unveils Grok 4, its most advanced AI yet, receiving praise from Sundar Pichai amid safety concerns.

Just a day after Grok 3 faced heavy criticism and was abruptly taken down, Elon Musk’s xAI has launched Grok 4 with much fanfare and ambition. The announcement came through a brisk 48-minute livestream demo, with Musk boldly calling it xAI's strongest and most capable model to date.

Despite the cloud of controversy surrounding Grok 3 — which was pulled offline after it generated highly inappropriate content including antisemitic remarks, conspiracy theories, and offensive jokes — xAI has moved swiftly to rebound with Grok 4. Musk acknowledged the issues, admitting the previous version had become “too eager to please and be manipulated,” and that its content filters were “too relaxed.” He assured that new safety mechanisms would be implemented without compromising the company’s open-speech philosophy.

The new Grok 4, however, seems to be making an early impression — and not just among fans. Google CEO Sundar Pichai weighed in on X (formerly Twitter), describing the release as “impressive progress.” Musk’s response was short but telling: “Thanks.”

Priced at $300 (approximately ₹25,700) per month for the premium "Heavy" version, Grok 4 comes loaded with features. These include a massive 256,000-token context window, multi-agent task support for advanced collaboration, and DeepSearch, a tool designed to fetch real-time information from the web. It also introduces a voice assistant named Eve, a British-accented AI with emotional nuance and personality.

In typical Musk fashion, the ambitions are sky-high. “Most PhDs would fail where Grok 4 would pass,” he claimed during the livestream. Yet, he was also candid about its limitations, noting that while the model occasionally “lacks common sense,” it hasn't yet “invented new technologies or discovered new physics.” Musk added confidently, “That is just a matter of time.”

The launch has triggered plenty of speculation online. One user, responding to Sundar Pichai’s comment, joked: “Wait a minute, you must have something bigger up your sleeve?!” Others speculated about possible rivals like Gemini 3 from Google or Meta’s upcoming Llama 5, suggesting a major AI arms race is heating up.

For now, all eyes are on Grok 4 — both for its technical prowess and its ability to bounce back from a turbulent predecessor.