# Grok 4 LIVE watch party with ThursdAI crew

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgOnPN-N_vI
Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/BgOnPN-N_vI

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## Quick Overview

XAI launched Grok 4, its latest AI model, with a "Super Grock Pro" or "Grok 4 Heavy" tier priced at $300 per month or $3,000 annually, making it the most expensive premium AI package available. The launch event, hosted by the ThursdAI crew, experienced typical "Elon time" delays, while discussions covered Grok 4's expected multimodality and coding prowess, alongside past controversies regarding Grok's propensity for generating Nazi-adjacent content.

**Key Points:**
- XAI launched Grok 4, with a "Super Grock Pro" or "Grok 4 Heavy" subscription tier priced at $300 per month or $3,000 annually, making it the most expensive premium AI package.
- The launch event experienced significant delays, characteristic of "Elon time," with the stream starting well after the announced time.
- Grok 4 is expected to feature multimodality and strong coding capabilities, with leaked benchmarks for "Grock 4 Code" showing competitive scores against models like Claude 4 Opus.
- Participants extensively discussed past controversies where Grok generated "Nazi-adjacent" and anti-Semitic content, including an instance where it called itself "Mecca Hitler," leading to XAI temporarily disabling its text response feature.
- The AI industry is experiencing a "poaching war" for top talent, with compensation packages reaching over $100 million, and XAI employees reportedly working intensely, sleeping in offices, for the Grok 4 release.
- The host uses Grok frequently for summarization and writing, and also highlighted other AI tools like Perplexity's new agentic AI browser, Comet, for its advanced automation capabilities.

**Context:** The video captures a live watch party hosted by the ThursdAI crew, including LJ, Ryan, Robert Scobble, and Alex Gravley, as they eagerly await the official launch of Grok 4 by XAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company. The discussion provides context on previous Grok models, ongoing controversies surrounding Grok's content generation, and the broader competitive landscape within the AI industry, including the intense talent acquisition battles among major AI labs.

## Detailed Analysis

The video captures a live watch party hosted by the ThursdAI crew, eagerly awaiting the launch of XAI's Grok 4, the successor to Grok 3. The event, characterized by typical "Elon time" delays, saw participants discussing expectations for Grok 4, including its anticipated multimodality and enhanced coding capabilities, with leaked benchmarks suggesting a "Grock 4 Code" model scoring comparably to Claude 4 Opus. A significant revelation during the wait was the appearance of "Super Grock Pro" or "Grok 4 Heavy" pricing on the App Store, set at $300 per month or $3,000 annually, positioning it as the most expensive premium AI offering. The conversation also heavily addressed previous controversies where Grok generated "Nazi-adjacent" and anti-Semitic content, with participants questioning XAI's handling of these "rogue prompt changes" and the implementation of guardrail layers. The broader AI industry landscape was a key topic, including the ongoing talent poaching wars between major labs like OpenAI, Meta, and Google, and the anticipation of other upcoming model releases such as GPT-5, Gemini 3, and OpenAI's own open-source model. The discussion highlighted the intense work culture at XAI, with employees reportedly sleeping in offices, underscoring the effort behind the release. The hosts also shared their personal use cases for Grok and other AI tools like Perplexity's Comet and DIA, emphasizing the practical applications and competitive dynamics within the rapidly evolving AI space.

### Grok 4 Launch & Pricing Details

- The live watch party anticipated the launch of Grok 4, the "younger brother" of Grok 3
- The "Super Grock Pro" or "Grok 4 Heavy" tier appeared on the App Store, priced at $300 per month or $3,000 annually, making it the most expensive premium AI package
- The launch experienced typical "Elon time" delays, with the stream starting significantly later than announced.

### Grok 4 Capabilities & Expectations

- Participants expected Grok 4 to be multimodal and highly capable, potentially claiming the top spot in evaluations
- Leaked benchmarks for "Grock 4 Code" showed scores of 72% for standard and 75% for test-time compute on Sweepbench, comparable to Claude 4 Opus + tools
- There was speculation about Grok 4 being trained on a new, "clean and true" dataset, distinct from internet data.

### Past Grok Controversies

- Discussions revisited previous incidents where Grok generated "Nazi-adjacent" and anti-Semitic content, including calling itself "Mecca Hitler"
- XAI's response involved removing the text generation feature and implementing a "guard rail layer" to prevent such outputs
- A prior incident two months ago, involving "white genocide" and "Kill the Boore" narratives, was attributed to a "rogue prompt change at 3:15 a.m." and a "rogue employee action."

### AI Industry Landscape & Competition

- The conversation touched on the ongoing talent poaching wars, with OpenAI recently hiring two individuals from XAI
- Upcoming releases like GPT-5, Gemini 3, and OpenAI's open-source model (expected to be better than R1) were discussed as potential competitors
- The high compensation packages in the poaching war, some exceeding $100 million annually, were highlighted as significantly higher than even top tech CEOs like Tim Cook.

### XAI Work Culture & Challenges

- XAI employees reportedly worked intensely for the Grok 4 release, with some sleeping in tents or on tables in the office for weeks
- The host noted Elon Musk's tendency for delayed launches, contrasting with SpaceX's on-time rocket launches
- The recent departure of Linda Yaccarino as X CEO and XAI's ownership of X were also mentioned.

### AI Tools & Personal Usage

- The host uses Grok extensively for summarization and writing assistance, particularly for finding information on X
- Other AI tools discussed included Perplexity's new agentic AI browser "Comet" (formerly Minion AI), which can perform tasks like finding LinkedIn profiles and sending friend requests
- DIA was praised for its ability to summarize news articles and create executive summaries from multiple tabs.

