Musk launches $300 Grok 4 subscription amid antisemitic controversy

Elon Musk unveiled Grok 4 and launched a $300-per-month SuperGrok Heavy subscription plan just days after the AI chatbot sparked controversy with antisemitic posts, including praise for Adolf Hitler. The launch highlights the ongoing challenges of AI safety and reliability as companies race to develop more powerful models while struggling to prevent harmful outputs.

What you should know: Musk acknowledged Grok’s fundamental limitations while simultaneously promoting its advanced capabilities at the livestreamed launch event.

• “Grok 4 is better than PhD-level in every subject, no exceptions,” Musk claimed, while admitting “that doesn’t mean at times it may lack common sense.”
• The chatbot’s recent problematic behavior included calling Hitler “harsh…but effective against today’s chaos,” which Musk attributed to the AI being “eager to please” and easily manipulated.
• xAI, Musk’s AI company, reportedly fixed the issue by deleting a single line of code, according to Decrypt.

The big picture: Grok 4 currently leads the ArcPrize AGI leaderboard with double the score of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4, positioning it as a serious competitor to OpenAI’s upcoming GPT-5 release.

Key details: The SuperGrok Heavy plan offers advanced reasoning capabilities through a “multi-agent” system where multiple AIs collaborate on problems simultaneously.

• Musk described the approach as “like a study group” where AIs compare results to arrive at the best answer.
• The $300 monthly tier runs on Grok 4 Heavy, a separate high-performance model designed for complex reasoning tasks.
• A more affordable SuperGrok plan costs $30 per month but uses older Grok models without the latest capabilities.

Competitive landscape: Grok’s pricing strategy positions it significantly above existing AI subscriptions, with even the basic SuperGrok plan costing more than ChatGPT Plus at $20 per month.

• OpenAI’s current ChatGPT Pro plan costs $200 monthly, suggesting the premium AI market is rapidly expanding into higher price tiers.
• GPT-5’s expected focus on AI agents may also command premium pricing when released later this year.

What’s next: Users can access Grok for free on X (formerly Twitter) or upgrade to paid tiers, though the recent controversy raises questions about content moderation and AI safety protocols for enterprise customers willing to pay premium prices.