🤖 Grok 3 Joins the AI Race

Plus: OpenAI's Next Step

February 20, 2025

Hello AI Enthusiast,

This week in AI, Elon Musk's xAI released Grok 3 with reasoning capabilities while OpenAI announced plans to unify their models with GPT-5. Both moves signal a shift toward smarter, more streamlined AI experiences, though with different approaches to pricing and politics. Let's explore them.

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The Big Picture 🔊

xAI Releases Grok 3

Elon Musk's xAI has launched Grok 3, a family of AI models including reasoning capabilities that reportedly outperform OpenAI's o3-mini on several benchmarks. The release features "Think" and "Big Brain" modes for complex problems, plus a DeepSearch function for web research. X Premium+ subscribers get first access, while a new $30/month SuperGrok subscription will offer additional features. Voice mode and enterprise API access are coming soon, with plans to open-source Grok 2 in the coming months.

Gioele Mottarlini
Gioele MottarliniCOO and Image Addict

The benchmarks are always impressive but feel disconnected from how people actually use AI day-to-day. Ironically, while pitched as the "anti-woke" AI, Grok leaned politically left in studies, likely because all these models train on similar web data. Musk's push for "political neutrality" makes us question whether AI should reflect specific political views.

The "DeepSearch" feature pulling from X (Twitter) creates concerns about information quality, especially since Musk only open-sources older models after launching newer ones.

Have you tried using Grok (current version) yet? What's your experience?

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Sam Altman Reveals GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 Plans

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed GPT-4.5 will be their last non-chain-of-thought model, while GPT-5 will integrate o3 technology into a unified system. He admitted their product lineup has become confusing and promised tiered GPT-5 access for different subscription levels, with release expected in "weeks/months.”

Gianluca Belloni
Gianluca BelloniCMO and Marketing Nomad

Unifying models is probably the right move. While AI professionals might miss some control, most users find model selection confusing and just pick the most powerful option regardless of their simple query. This wastes resources, letting AI choose the appropriate model based on the task should significantly reduce OpenAI's computing costs while making the experience simpler for everyone.

The tiered intelligence levels for different subscriptions shows where the industry is heading.

Bits and Bobs 🗞️

  • Perplexity too has launched Deep Research, a tool aimed at providing expert-level analysis across various domains.

  • Apple has partnered with Alibaba to integrate AI technology into its devices in China to help Apple navigate China's strict AI regulations and compete with local companies like Huawei.

  • OpenAI's new updates for ChatGPT allow users to upload files and images using the o1 and o3-mini models, and Plus users get a 7x increase in their o3-mini-high usage limit.

  • Mira Murati, launching a new AI startup, has recruited key figures from Open.

  • Microsoft Research has developed OmniParser, a tool that transforms user interface screenshots into structured data interpretable by AI, allowing seamless interaction and action prediction on GUIs.

  • Adobe has launched the Firefly Video Model, a generative AI tool designed for video, image, and vector creation, emphasizing IP-friendly and commercially safe content generation.

  • Gemini now remembers past conversations to provide more helpful and relevant responses, allowing you to build on previous chats without starting from scratch.

  • Bolt, a no-code AI app generator, has partnered with Expo to simplify native mobile app creation, making it easier for developers to transition web apps into mobile formats.

  • Remember Humane's AI Pin devices? They will soon lose functionality, and owners are advised to back up their data as the company dissolves its customer support team.

From Our Founder’s Channels 🤳

Watch Gianluca explain why AI "seeing" your screen is tech history repeating itself.

@gianluca.mauro

Tech history repeats itself #Ai #learnontiktok #artificialintelligence #business #machinelearning #product #ux #entrepreneur

LOLgorithms 😂

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Catch you next week! 👋