Elon Musk's artificial intelligence venture, xAI, has launched Grok 3, the latest iteration of its chatbot, in a bid to rival industry leaders like OpenAI's ChatGPT and China's DeepSeek.
Promoted as "scary smart" by Musk, Grok 3 is said to possess ten times the computational power of its predecessor. It features self-correction mechanisms designed to minimize AI hallucination errors that often plague language models. According to Musk, internal tests have shown Grok 3 surpassing all other currently available AI models.
The launch comes as xAI seeks to raise USD10 billion (RM44.5 billion) in new funding, with an ambitious valuation target of USD75 billion (RM338.1 billion). Meanwhile, China's DeepSeek has emerged as a formidable competitor, challenging the U.S.'s dominance in AI development.
Beyond technology, Musk's growing political influence has also raised concerns. Recently appointed as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Donald Trump's administration, Musk now holds a position that grants him broad authority over federal agencies. Given his business interests in AI, space, and electric vehicles, critics question whether his political power could give xAI an unfair advantage in the global AI race.
As competition intensifies, the battle for AI supremacy is becoming as much about politics as it is about technology.
