Elon Musk's AI startup xAI announced on the X platform today (14th) that it is starting to roll out the new Grok-2 model for free to all users on the X platform. The company wrote in a blog post that:
Since launching Grok-2 in August, we've been working hard to improve Grok on X, adding new features like real-time web search and citations, as well as our recently launched image generation service Aurora.
Over the past few weeks, we've been quietly testing a new version of the Grok-2 model, which is three times faster and provides higher accuracy, better instruction following, and multilingual capabilities.
Today, we're starting to roll out this new version of Grok-2 for free to all users on X. As always, Premium and Premium+ users get higher usage limits and will be the first to experience any new features.
According to xAI, the Grok 2 update includes three key new features:
Search Results and Citations
Now, Grok leverages X's posts and the broader web to provide timely, accurate answers to all users' questions. We've also added a citations feature, allowing you to easily dive deeper into sources to learn more or verify the information Grok provides.
Grok, Draw Me
The new "draw me" feature allows users to generate reimagined versions of themselves using their X profile picture. If you see other users' "draw me" posts on X and want to try it yourself, simply click the "Use Grok to create your version" button.
Grok, Analyze!
Additionally, xAI has introduced a Grok button, a new feature that will appear on posts in your main feed. This button is designed to help you discover relevant context, understand breaking news, and dive deeper into popular discussions.
General Users Still Have Usage Restrictions
However, mashdigi points out that general users still have certain usage restrictions when using the free version, with a limit of 10 queries per 2 hours using the Grok-2 model, or 20 queries per 2 hours using the Grok-2 mini model, and a maximum of 3 image analysis responses per day.
Additionally, to use the Grok features for free, general user accounts must be at least 7 days old and have a personal phone number registered.
Grok 3 Expected to Launch in December
Musk's xAI only launched the Grok model in November 2023, much later than competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. However, the world's richest man Musk is chasing to challenge ChatGPT, and after completing a $6 billion funding round in the spring, the company recently completed another $5 billion round, bringing its total funding this year to $11 billion.
In September, xAI officially launched its super AI cluster "Colossus", touted as the world's most powerful AI training system, consisting of 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, which is expected to significantly improve the training speed of the Grok model. Musk has previously revealed that xAI will launch "Grok 3" in December.
