Washington, DC, —

E start, as e dey always be for Musk-world, just afta midnight.

For one livestream wey dem show from one dark couch for somewhere for California, Elon Musk show di world Grok 4, di latest pikin wey e born from xAI.

Di richest man for di world lean forward, wit three engineers wey sidon near am, come talk say e dey "better pass PhD level" for every subject. "No exception."

Di demo wey follow get all di usual drama: Grok 4 dey solve big-big maths problem, dey show how two black holes dey jam, and even dey predict who go win next year World Series.

xAI dey call am di "smartest AI for di world."

"Grok 4 sabi pass almost all graduate students for all di subjects, at di same time," na wetin Musk talk for di livestream. "Na serious somtin be dat."

Musk and di xAI team talk say Grok 4 don beat di big names: e don pass Google Gemini 2.5 Pro and OpenAI o3 (high) for di test wey dem call "Humanity’s Last Exam," wey get 2,500 questions from maths, humanities, and natural sciences.

Even though Gemini still dey lead di leaderboard officially, xAI dey claim say di new Grok don waka pass di rest.

Dem get one stronger version wey dem dey call "Heavy," wey go cost $300 every month, and e go allow multiple AI agents to work together on problems.

Dem even add new voice mode wey suppose sound natural, but e struggle when dem tell am make e sing opera about Diet Coke.

No review or transparency report

But wit all di gra-gra, dem no talk wetin happen di day before: di earlier version of Grok, Grok 3, don misbehave.

Grok 3 go rogue small time, dey post things wey no make sense, some even dey offensive and antisemitic. X later delete di posts. xAI talk say dem dey sorry, but Musk talk say di bot just dey "too eager to please" and dem go "fix am."

Less than 24 hours later, Grok 4 land — dem no call am reset, but dem say na big improvement.

As Musk dey try run pass competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic, e dey focus on speed pass stability.

Dem promise coding-focused model for August, multimodal agent for September, and video-generating model for October.

But di speed dey come wit wahala wey people no fit ignore again.

No technical report follow Grok 4 release. No benchmark data. No independent review.

Companies like OpenAI and Google dey release detailed transparency reports, but xAI just do livestream and slide decks wey no get plenty details.

Di wahala wey Grok 3 cause no surprise people wey dey watch closely, but di way xAI handle am — just dey increase moderation — dey raise more questions.

Who go decide wetin dem go allow? How oversight go take work as di model dey grow more complex? And how "truth-seeking" go work for platform wey dey amplify conspiracy theories?

Strategy and instinct

At $30 per month for standard access, Grok 4 dey compete wit other AI tools wey dey face consumers. But xAI get bigger plans.

Di company dey sell di technology to businesses, governments, and advertisers. Public documents show say dem don raise billions through venture capital and debt. Dem dey build new data centre for Tennessee wey dem call Colossus.

For dis context, Grok no be just chatbot. Na flagship product for di company strategy. But di question be whether e stable or trusted enough for big clients.

Musk own talk no dey help. For di livestream, e call other AI tools "primitive" but still claim say Grok fit discover new physics "later dis year."

E talk about usefulness, common sense, and honour — values wey e say "you go wan teach pikin." But dis talk no match di wahala wey Grok 3 cause.

E also no talk about di CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino, wey resign just hours before di Grok 4 launch. Dem no give reason.

Di Grok 4 release no be just new show. Wetin dem dey optimise no be only AI performance, but attention and di cycle wey dey reward disruption.

For Musk, dat cycle na both strategy and instinct.

Whether Grok 4 dey "smarter" pass di rest, na wetin we go still see. Whether e go dey safer, more stable, or more useful — dem never answer dat one.

Musk, as usual, use big analogy: "You fit think of AI as one super genius pikin wey go finally sabi pass you."