Grok 3 launch: Elon Musk explains what ‘Grok’ means
Elon Musk‘s xAI unveiled its latest artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok 3, which Musk has described as the “smartest AI on Earth.” The launch event, held on February 17, 2025, showcased the capabilities of Grok 3, including advanced reasoning, text-to-video conversion, and self-correction mechanisms.
Elon Musk explains what ‘Grok’ means
During the live demonstration, Musk took the opportunity to explain the origin of the name “Grok.” He revealed that the term comes from Robert Heinlein’s science fiction novel “Stranger in a Strange Land.” In the novel, the word “grok” is used by a character raised on Mars and means to fully and profoundly understand something. Musk emphasised that the word conveys deep understanding and empathy, which are key attributes of Grok 3.
The event attracted nearly 100,000 live viewers, who witnessed Grok 3’s impressive performance in various benchmarks, including science, coding, and math. Musk praised the xAI team for their hard work and dedication, highlighting the rapid development and deployment of Grok 3.
Grok 3’s capabilities are powered by the Colossus supercomputer, utilising 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs to provide 200 million GPU-hours for training. This immense computational power enables Grok 3 to process large datasets quickly and accurately, setting a new standard in AI performance.
As Grok 3 rolls out to Premium Plus subscribers on the X platform, users can look forward to a new era of AI interaction and development. The chatbot’s advanced features and innovative design promise to revolutionise human understanding and engagement with artificial intelligence.
