AI on Mars?

Welcome back apprentices! 👋

Last time, we talked about the AI Action Summit in Paris and whether world leaders are actually steering this AI race — or if we’re all just strapped into a runaway tech rollercoaster with no brakes. 

Meanwhile, France tossed €109B at AI in an attempt to flex on Silicon Valley.

But let’s be real: at this stage, it’s not governments calling the shots — it’s the tech giants. OpenAI, Google, and… well, maybe Elon Musk?

The man who once warned us to be afraid of AI is now dropping Grok 3, claiming it outperforms everyone. Is this a true AI breakthrough or just another Musk-style sales pitch?

Let’s dive in — and see if Elon just built an AI that can help colonize Mars.

In today's email

• The Robot Can Breakdance

• AI Deepfakes 

• Who’s the Smartest Tool-Using Model?

• Grok 3 Release

• More Tools & Updates

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Quick News 

🕺 Unitree’s G1 robot just got some serious groove, learning dance moves that would put most of us to shame. But before you start planning a robotic flash mob, take a peek at the fine print: Unitree had to politely ask users not to “modify” it for, well, nefarious purposes. Because nothing says "totally safe tech" like a gentle reminder not to turn your dancing robot into a dystopian nightmare.

🚨 Scarlett Johansson just had her AI "twin" stage a protest she never attended, after a deepfake video falsely showed her, Jerry Seinfeld, and Steven Spielberg rallying against Kanye West. The intent? A statement on antisemitism. The problem? AI misinformation is spiraling out of control. Johansson warned that deepfake deception might be an even bigger threat than hate speech itself. Meanwhile, Ye is getting booted off Shopify for selling swastika merch, proving once again that reality is somehow still weirder than AI.

🏆 Galileo Labs just threw 17 top AI models into a battle royale to see who handles real-world tools best, and the results might surprise you. Google’s Gemini 2.0 and OpenAI’s GPT-4o grabbed the top spots, but the underdog Flash 2.0 came swinging, scoring 0.938 and outperforming pricier rivals. Meanwhile, open-source models like Mistral are sneaking up the leaderboard, proving that you don’t need Big Tech money to build a competitive AI.

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Grok 3  
"Scary Smart" or Just Scary? 

Elon Musk says Grok 3 is here to destroy the competition, calling it the "smartest AI on Earth." Bold claim. But is it real, or is this just another “full self-driving” promise that arrives half-baked?

Grok 3 is rolling out today with some big upgrades. According to Elon & xAI, here’s what it brings to the table:

📊 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs powering xAI’s Colossus supercomputer (10x more compute than Grok 2).
🔄 Self-correcting AI – It reflects on errors and improves itself (unlike your ex).
📡 Real-time access to X – Which means it learns… whatever X is saying. So, memes and conspiracy theories?
🧠 Synthetic data training – Instead of scraping the web, Grok trains on AI-generated content. (Yes, an AI learning from itself. What could go wrong?)

💡 Musk’s Big Claim: Grok 3 outperforms everything on reasoning tests. But where’s the proof?

How Does Grok 3 Compare? Benchmarks, Please.

Here’s how some top AI models stack up on the MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding) benchmark  –  a key test for AI reasoning:

• GPT-o1 (OpenAI): 92.3%

• Claude 3.5 Opus (Anthropic): 89.7%

• Grok 2: 87.5%

• DeepSeek-V2 (China’s rising AI): 86.4%

Grok 3’s score? We don’t know yet. Musk says it’s the best, but xAI hasn’t published the data. So, for now, the “smartest AI on Earth” title remains… unverified.

The Underdog (With Billions in the Bank)

xAI is only 7 months old, but it’s already a serious competitor. Some quick numbers:

💰 $6 billion in funding from NVIDIA, AMD, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
🚀 Fastest-built AI supercomputer – Colossus was created in 8 months (faster than your last home renovation).
👀 500M+ X users – Musk’s AI has direct access to real-time social media data, which OpenAI and Google don’t.

BUT: While OpenAI has Microsoft, and Google has… well, Google, xAI is largely Musk-backed, meaning its future depends on Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter money.

From "AI is More Dangerous Than Nukes" to "BUY MY AI!"

Musk once screamed about AI risk louder than your uncle at Thanksgiving:

• 2018: “AI is far more dangerous than nukes.”

• 2023: Signed a letter calling for a 6-month pause on AI development.

• 2025: "BUY GROK 3! It's better than ChatGPT!"

So… what happened? Simple: Money and Revenge.

Musk didn’t just fall out with OpenAI — he’s been beefing with them like an AI-powered soap opera. After quitting OpenAI’s board in 2018, suing them in 2024, and calling Altman a "swindler", Musk went full "I'll just build my own AI empire" mode and launched xAI in July 2023.

Then, just last week, he offered $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, claiming he wanted to bring it back to its open-source roots. Altman? He laughed in Musk’s face, joking OpenAI would rather buy Twitter for $9.74 billion instead.

Oh, and Musk’s now advising Trump on AI policy, a far cry from his AI doomsday warnings, aligning himself with less regulation while building one of the least restricted AI models out there.

The Irony: The same guy who once demanded government oversight on AI is now running one of the most loosely governed AI projects. What a plot twist.

Is Grok 3 a Game-Changer or Just Musk Hype?

What’s Likely True:

✔️ Grok 3 is way more powerful than Grok 2 (100,000 GPUs are no joke).
✔️ It has stronger reasoning than before, thanks to better self-correction.
✔️ It’s a legit competitor to ChatGPT, especially if xAI keeps improving.

What’s Probably Exaggerated:

❌ “Smartest AI on Earth” – No public benchmarks prove this claim yet.
❌ “Scary Smart” Reasoning – Stronger? Yes. Smarter than everything? Let’s wait for data.
❌ “More Honest AI” – Less filtering = possibly more misinformation, not “more truth.”

So Is Grok 3 Worth the Hype?

Grok 3 is a serious AI upgrade, but the “best AI” title is unproven. Musk is great at hyping tech, but until we see actual benchmarks, this is just a marketing flex.

🚀 Should you be excited? Yes.
😅 Should you believe Musk 100%? Absolutely not.

We’ll see if Grok 3 really outsmarts ChatGPT or if Musk just out-markets OpenAI. Until then… take the “smartest AI on Earth” with a grain of rocket fuel. 

Tools & Updates

👀 Anthropic has been way too quiet lately, but now they’re reportedly dropping a new AI model that’s both a speedster and a deep thinker. This hybrid system can switch between regular chatbot mode and full-blown reasoning engine, with a fancy developer-friendly dial to control how much AI brainpower is used per query. And here’s the kicker: Rumor has it, they’ve had a model better than OpenAI’s o3 all along but kept it locked away like an overpowered Pokémon — because, well, safety.

🎬 YouTube just handed content creators a magic wand by rolling out Google DeepMind’s Veo 2 AI model into Shorts, meaning you can now generate full video clips and Hollywood-worthy backgrounds with nothing but a text prompt. The upgrade turbocharges Dream Screen with smoother physics, cinematic effects, and lightning-fast rendering, letting creators skip the “hours of editing” struggle and go straight to viral fame. Oh, and to keep things somewhat grounded in reality, Google’s SynthID watermark will brand all AI-made clips — so at least we’ll know when your dog’s actually talking.

🤖 Apptronik just secured a whopping $350 million in funding from B Capital, Capital Factory, and Google, and they’re not using it to throw a lavish tech party. Nope — they’re fast-tracking Apollo, their AI-powered humanoid robot, which is about to clock in at warehouses, manufacturing plants, and logistics hubs. With Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics already placing orders, robots are officially entering the workforce — minus the lunch breaks.

Let's Chat About AI

This is all for today!

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AI is more than just a buzzword. It’s a shift in how we live and work. And understanding it a bit better means you can make smarter choices about the tech you use every day.

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