Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 07/10 – Grok 4

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Grok 4 is out, plus Grok 4 Voice, Grok 4 Code, a bunch more. Ok we know Zuck wants to catch up on AI, but an insider explains why they think Meta fell behind in the first place. Are AI web browsers the next battlefield in the AI wars. And if your electricity bill goes up substantially, you’ll never guess what you can blame. Links: Grok 4 is live — here’s what makes it Elon Musk’s most advanced AI yet (Tom's Guide) Meta Poached Apple’s Pang With Pay Package Over $200 Million (Bloomberg) Zuckerberg’s $100 Million AI Job Offers Are Paying Off (Bloomberg) Exclusive: OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome (Reuters) Microsoft Touts $500 Million AI Savings While Slashing Jobs (Bloomberg) America's largest power grid is struggling to meet demand from AI (Reuters) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Thursday, July 10th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Grock 4 is out.

Plus Grock 4 voice, Grog4 code, a bunch more. Okay, we know Zuck wants to catch up on AI, but Insider explains why they think meta fell behind in AI in the first place. Our AI web browsers, the next battlefield in the AI wars, and if your electricity bill goes up substantially this summer, you'll never guess what you can blame. You can probably guess. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. X-A-I has rolled out GROC-4, trained on its colossus supercomputer,

featuring multimodal tools, faster reasoning, GROC4 voice, GROC4 code, a new interface and more. According to artificial analysis benchmarks, GROC4 is now the leading AI model, a first for XAI as a company, though they also note that GROC4's per token pricing is more expensive than Gemini 2.5 pros and O3s, quoting Tom's guide. An hour after the live stream was supposed to start last night, July 9th, Elon Musk and a few members of his XAI team introduced us to GROC4 on XAI. The long-winded announcement shared the news of multimodal features, faster reasoning, and an upgraded interface something Musk compared to an era of, quote, Big Bang Intelligence. On paper, Grock 4 is Musk's most ambitious AI model yet. The model is expected to rival OpenAI's GPT4 and Anthropics Clod for Opus, both of which have recently dominated

headlines for their real-time speed, reasoning, and advanced vision. We've run out of test questions to ask, Musk boasted during the launch, adding, reality is the ultimate reasoning test. But GROC isn't just trying to compete, it's trying to survive a credibility crisis. The platform's unfiltered free speech approach has led to concerning outputs, including racist and biased content that circulated widely over the weekend. That's raised big questions about how much testing and guardrailing XAI has actually done, especially as it rushes toward real-time human-like interaction. Here's a rundown of what GROC4 has. Advanced Reasoning. GROC4 has been trained on XAI's Colossus supercomputer for advanced scientist-grade reasoning. The model promises stronger logical

reasoning and text generation. It uses the same model physicists use. A coding-focused variant is also included. Developers will appreciate GROC4 code, a specialized model designed to write, debug, and explain code more efficiently, echoing tools like GitHub, copilot, or GPT4 code interpreter. Multimodal capabilities. GROC4 is expected to support not only text, but images and possibly video with Musk mentioning that's one of their biggest weaknesses. Better multimodal capabilities would bring the model closer in competition with Open AIs and Google's Gemini. GROC4 may support video at some point. Voice features. GROC4 voice features a natural human-like voice with fewer interruptions. Real-time web access, like earlier GROC models, GROC4 features deep search,

a tool that pulls in live data from the web, especially from Musk's X platform. That means GROC can provide up-to-date results during chats, no separate tab or browser needed. Cultural fluency and meme smarts. One of GROC's biggest differentiators is its understanding of internet culture. GROC4 is being tuned to interpret memes, slang, and humor with high accuracy, potentially making it one of the most online AI assistance yet, end quote. And quoting the verge. During Wednesday's live stream, Musk said he's been at times kind of worried about

AI's intelligence far surpassing that of humans, and whether it will be, quote, bad or good for humanity. I think it'll be good. Most likely it'll be good, Musk said, but I've somewhat reconciled myself to the fact that even if it wasn't going to be good, I'd at least like to be alive to see it happen. I would expect Grok to discover new technologies that are actually useful no later than next year, and maybe the end of this year, Musk said. It might discover new physics next year. Let that sink in, end quote. XAI also launched GROC4 Heavy, a multi-agent version of GROC4, offering increased performance, and unveiled a new $300 per month AI subscription plan called Super GROC Heavy, end quote.

Still covering this whole AI talent, free-for-all, I've honestly never in 25 years in this industry seen hiring in the tech industry go like this. Bloomberg says that META offered Rooming Pang a more than $200 million pay package over a several-year period in line with Meta's other AI hires. Apple apparently did not try to match the offer. Quote, the compensation packages for hires at Meta's Superintelligence Labs or MSL are comprised of a base salary, a signing bonus, and meta shares with the stock as the weightiest part of the package. The salary and bonus to join are often significant cash payments in cases where a recruit would have to walk away from significant startup equity to join meta. The signing bonus may be hire to account for that lost opportunity, the people said. For the stock portion, Meta tends to put in

its contracts that the payouts are tied to specific metrics such as meta's stock growing by at least a certain percentage in a given year, the people said. In many cases, the new hires are agreeing to join on contracts that exceed a typical four-year vesting schedule for stock, they added, end quote. In a separate report, Bloomberg says Mark Zuckerberg's hiring Blitz for top AI talent is spurring other leading AI scientists to join meta. Like if they assemble a true A team, A players might want to join that team, I guess. Quote, of course, money is a great motivator, but many of these researchers are already wealthy, and their field is so ideologically charged and so close-knit, that they're motivated by the

glory of being published in nature or having a hand in the biggest new AI model, just as much as they are by the prospect of yachts and mansions. Zuckerberg's public commitment to open-source AI with his Lama model has already a attracted scientists who believe such systems can have a more democratizing impact if they're free for all. Opening Eye made a similar bet early on, sharing much of its research freely for recruitment purposes, according to its then-Chief scientist Elias Suscever, before taking that work behind closed doors. Many researchers reckon AI can eventually solve intractable human problems like aging, climate change, and cancer, and that overwhelmingly through history technology has been a net good for humanity.

But for many, the desire to build that technology first is even more powerful, a dynamic, not so different to the field of cancer research where scientists want to win the race to a cure as much as they want to find cures at all. The key catnip Zuckerberg is offering researchers is vast amounts of compute. AI scientists need huge rays of powerful AI chips and data farms to develop the most cutting-edge models, and with it, the chance of being first to cross the superintelligence threshold, which Zuckerberg likely cares about as much as anyone else in the field, end quote. Now, a bit of counter to that. In an internal meta-a-assay, an outgoing meta-AI researcher says meta's culture of fear, their words, with performance reviews and rolling layoffs, is like a, quote,

metastatic cancer, quoting the information. One outgoing research scientist from Meta's generative AI group has come up with his own diagnosis of the company's AI problems, and his assessment isn't pretty. In a more than 2,000-word essay that has circulated inside meta in recent days, the research scientist Tidgman Blankvort paints a bleak picture of cultural and organizational dysfunction inside meta that he argues has stymied its progress in AI. I have yet to meet someone in Meta gen AI that truly enjoys being there, someone that feels like they want to stay in Meta for a long time because it's such a great place, Blankvort, referring to the nearly 2,000-person group that develops Meta's flagship AI model Lama. You'll be hard-pressed to find someone that really

believes in our AI mission. To most, it's not even clear what our mission is. The S.A. a copy of which the information reviewed reflects the perspective of one individual, but the concerns of the author who worked on Lama at META echo those other members of META's AI team have expressed in recent months about infighting, lack of focus, and burnout in the group. Many of those current employees, as well as META alumni, have been buzzing in recent days about the essay, which Blankfort posted in an internal meta bulletin board system called Workplace, according to two people familiar with the essay. I've seen too many brilliant people who absolutely thrived in other companies come and go,

Blankfort wrote. Mostly this is because of our culture. Many of the people that left hate Meta's generative AI group with vigorous intent. Instead of being motivated by our mission or an aspiration to build something great, many people I've talked to are motivated by the fear of getting fired, Blankford, wrote. This attitude runs through the company like a metastatic cancer. It has led to a culture of, quote, every person for themselves, as well as, quote, land grabbing, project sniping, stealing work, he added. Another problem with meta's AI efforts, according to Blankfort is a lack of vision. Over the last two years, the company's generative AI group has accumulated a list of sometimes competing responsibilities, including Lama, its meta-AI

assistant, and other AI products and features across its social media apps and devices. In contrast, much of OpenAI's attention is on its hit chat chit chatbot, and Anthropic has been hyper-focused on developing the best AI for coding, resulting in an explosion of revenue growth this year. After sharing the essay, Meta's AI leadership read it and reached out to me right away and very positively so, Blankfort said, they are very eager to improve. I believe the AI organization just tried to run too fast for too long, and they have realized that this needs to turn around a bit for the org to be effective, end quote. Sources say OpenAI plans an AI-powered web browser with some user interactions within a chat

GPT-like native chat interface so that you would use that instead of clicking through to websites. Quoting Reuters, the browser is slated to launch in the coming weeks. Three of the people said, and aims to use artificial intelligence to fundamentally change how consumers browse the web. It will give OpenAI more direct access to a cornerstone of Google's success user data. If adopted by the 500 million weekly active users of chat GPT, OpenAI's browser could put pressure on a key component of rival Google's ad money spiket. Chrome is an important pillar of Alphabet's ad business, which makes up nearly three quarters of its revenue,

as Chrome provides user information to help Alphabet target ads more effectively and profitably and gives Google a way to route search traffic to its own engine by default. OpenAI's browser is designed to keep some user interactions within a chat-chipt-like native chat interface instead of clicking through to websites, two of the sources said. The browser is part of a broader strategy by OpenAI to weave its services across the personal and work lives of consumers, one of the sources said. OpenAI has its work cut out for it. Google Chrome, which is used by more than 3 billion people,

currently holds more than two-thirds of the worldwide browser market, according to web analytics firm, stat counter. Apple's second-place Safari legs far behind with a 16% share. Last month, OpenAI said it had 3 million paying business users for chat GPT. Perplexity, which has a popular AI search engine launched an AI browser Comet on Wednesday, capable of performing actions on a user's behalf. Two other AI startups, the browser company and Brave, have released AI-powered browsers capable of browsing and summarizing the internet. Chrome's role in providing user information to help Alphabet Target ads more effectively and profitably has proven so successful that the Department of Justice has demanded its divestiture after a U.S. judge last year ruled that Google

holds a unlawful monopoly on online search. OpenAI's browser is built atop chromium. Google's own open source browser code, two of the sources said, chromium is the source code for Google Chrome, as well as many competing browsers, including Microsoft's Edge and Opera. Last year, OpenAI hired two longtime Google Vice presidents who were part of the original team that developed Google Chrome, the information was first to report their hires and that OpenAI previously considered building a browser, end quote. From the AI Jobpocalypse may be hitting Big Tech First file, a source says that during a presentation, Microsoft chief commercial officer Judson Althoff said AI saved Microsoft more than $500 million last year in call centers and user satisfaction activities. Quoting Bloomberg, the company is also starting

to use AI to handle interactions with smaller customers, Altof said. This effort is nascent, but already generating tens of millions of dollars, he said. Microsoft declined to comment. At Microsoft, AI generated 35% of the code for new products, accelerating launch times, Altof said. The company's GitHub co-pilot is a leader in the market for AI coding tools and has 15 million users, Microsoft said in April. AI implementation has fueled replacement anxiety for many workers, particularly in the tech industry. Microsoft has announced cuts of about 15,000 employees this year with a wave of layoffs last week targeting customer-facing roles like sales. Altafts stressed to employees that AI could make them more effective as sellers.

Through the use of Microsoft's co-pilot AI assistant, each salesperson is finding more leads, closing deals quicker, and generating 9% more revenue, he said. Productivity gains from AI were not a predominant factor in the job reductions of recent months, Microsoft's top lawyer Brad Smith said Wednesday during an event announcing a donation of over $4 billion in cash in technology to schools with a focus on spreading AI skills, end quote. Or how about a utility bill apocalypse? Reuters says electricity bills may rise more than 20% in parts of PJM Interconnections 13 state territory as the largest U.S. power grid struggles to meet AI and data center demand.

Electricity bills are projected to surge by more than 20% this summer in parts of PJM Interconnections Territory, which covers 13 states from Illinois to Tennessee, Virginia to New Jersey, serving 67 million customers in a region with the most data centers in the world. The governor of Pennsylvania is threatening to abandon the grid. The CEO has announced his departure, and the chair of PJM's board of managers and another board member were voted out. The upheaval at PJM started a year ago with a more than 800, percent jump in prices at its annual capacity auction. Rising prices out of the auction trickled down to everyday people's power bills. Now PJM is barreling towards its next capacity auction on Wednesday

when prices may rise even further. The auction aims to avoid blackouts by establishing a rate at which generators agree to pump out electricity during the most extreme periods of stress on the grid, usually the hottest and coldest days of the year. High prices out of the auction should spur new power plant construction, but that hasn't happened quickly enough in PJM's region as aging power plants continue to retire and data center demands explode. PJM has made the situation worse by delaying auctions and pausing the application process for new plants, according to more than a dozen power developers, regulators, energy attorneys, and other experts interviewed by Reuters, we need speed from PJM, we need transparency from

PJM, and we need to keep consumer costs down with PJM. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told Reuters in an interview. I think they've taken some steps in that direction, which is really encouraging to me, and we're going to continue to work at it. PJM says the supply and demand crunch has been caused largely by factors outside of its control, including state energy policies that closed fossil fuel-fired power plants prematurely and data center growth in Data Center Alley in northern Virginia and other burgeoning hubs in the mid-Atlantic. Prices will remain high as long as demand growth is outstripping supply. This is a basic economic policy, said PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields,

Right now, we need every megawatt we can get, end quote. Related. The Financial Times says U.S. power providers have sought regulatory approval for $29 billion in rate increases in the first half of this year, up 142 percent year-on-year, following, you guessed it, booming data center demand. Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.