How Grok 3 Chatbot Stack Up Against OpenAI, DeepSeek As Elon Musk Raves 'Scary Smart' AI

Elon Musk's latest venture, Grok, is making waves in the AI chatbot world. The tech mogul has praised its capabilities, even calling it 'scary smart.' But how does this new contender measure up against established giants like OpenAI and DeepSeek?

Musk's AI startup, xAI, has just unveiled its upgraded Grok-3 model. Designed to rival OpenAI, the release comes just days after Musk's unsolicited bid to acquire the company was rejected.

Grok-3 Takes on the Competition

During a live stream on Monday, 17 February, xAI announced that Grok-3 outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4, Google's Gemini, DeepSeek's V3, and Anthropic's Claude in maths, science, and coding tests.

In a presentation alongside three xAI engineers, Musk described Grok-3 as 'scary smart,' highlighting its tenfold increase in computing power over its predecessor and confirming that pre-training was completed in early January.

Musk's performance claims, which outside sources haven't verified, intensify the growing competition between his startup and OpenAI. The 53-year-old business magnate founded xAI in 2023 to rival the ChatGPT developer, a company he has openly criticised for its plans to become a for-profit entity.

Musk And OpenAI: A Clash Of Titans

Musk has taken legal action against OpenAI twice, claiming they've abandoned their original mission. He also recently made a £77.21 billion ($97.4 billion) offer to acquire OpenAI's non-profit division, which was declined, per Forbes.

OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, dismissed the bid as an attempt to 'slow us down.' Musk was a founding member of OpenAI but has been a vocal critic since leaving its board in 2018.

xAI Unveils DeepSearch

xAI also launched DeepSearch, a new intelligent search engine powered by Grok-3. DeepSearch functions as a reasoning chatbot, explaining how it interprets a query and outlines its response strategy.

The demonstration highlighted options for research, brainstorming, and data analysis. Musk's team also announced plans to launch a voice-activated chatbot. 'We're continually improving the models every day, and literally within 24 hours, you'll see improvements,' Musk said.

Grok-3 vs. GPT-4: Price Points And Performance

Grok-3 is accessible to Premium+ subscribers on X for £17.44 ($22) monthly. In contrast, full access to OpenAI's GPT-4 costs £158.54 ($200) monthly. Moreover, xAI is launching a new 'SuperGrok' subscription for the bot's mobile app and Grok.com website.

The Musk-led artificial intelligence company also plans to release earlier versions of the Grok models as open-source software once the latest version reaches full maturity. Musk anticipates Grok-3 will be ready for open-source release within a few months.

Following the Grok-3 updates, Andrej Karpathy, a former OpenAI co-founder, shared an initial review of the new model on X, writing, 'feels somewhere around the state of the art territory of OpenAI's strongest models.'

However, the computer scientist who previously led AI development at Tesla noted that Musk's model also trumped up information and performed less effectively in some areas. Karpathy suggested that further testing over the coming days and weeks is necessary for a more thorough understanding of the model's capabilities.

The Billion-Dollar AI Race

Leading AI companies, such as OpenAI and xAI, have secured funding at an astonishing pace, resulting in skyrocketing valuations. Last week, Bloomberg News reported that Musk's xAI is discussing raising approximately £7.93 billion ($10 billion) in a funding round that could value the company at around £59.45 billion ($75 billion).

PitchBook data indicates the company's previous valuation was around £40.42 billion ($51 billion). OpenAI is reportedly seeking up to £31.71 billion ($40 billion) in a funding round that could increase its valuation to as high as £237.79 billion ($300 billion).

These AI ventures require significant capital. In January, SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi-backed MGX jointly revealed a plan to invest £79.26 billion ($100 billion), with a long-term goal of £396.32 billion ($500 billion), in building data centres and other AI infrastructure in the US.

However, alternative technologies are developing that could disrupt this model, potentially levelling the playing field for new competitors. Last month, the Chinese AI firm DeepSeek launched R1, a new open-source AI model that reportedly matched or surpassed leading US competitors across various industry benchmarks. DeepSeek claims to have developed this model at a significantly lower cost than its US equivalents.