xAI Plans Grok 3 Release in Six Months

With Grok 2.5 now open source, Musk is positioning xAI as a serious competitor to OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Meta AI. The planned open release of Grok 3 could accelerate research and innovation, while the anticipated Grok 5 launch by year-end is expected to further intensify the global AI race.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has officially open-sourced its Grok 2.5 model, making it freely available for developers, researchers, and AI enthusiasts. Musk also announced that Grok 3, launched earlier this year, will be open-sourced within the next six months. Additionally, he reiterated his ambitious roadmap to roll out Grok 5 by the end of this year, signaling a fast-paced expansion in the competitive AI industry.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk wrote, “The @xAI Grok 2.5 model, which was our best model last year, is now open source. Grok 3 will be made open source in about 6 months.”

This move aligns with Musk’s long-standing push for transparency in artificial intelligence and positions xAI as a stronger player in the open-source AI ecosystem. Prior to this, the company had also open-sourced its Grok 1 model last year.

Rising Competition in Open-Source AI

Musk’s decision comes at a time when AI competition is heating up globally. Earlier this year, OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, released two new open-source models — its first since GPT-2. Meanwhile, Meta’s Llama models have become the most prominent open-source AI frameworks in the West, with four versions already available under open licenses.

In Asia, Chinese startups like Qwen and DeepSeek have gained global attention for releasing powerful open-source models, increasing pressure on Western companies to adopt similar practices.

Grok AI and Privacy Concerns

Despite its growing popularity, Grok AI has been at the center of controversy. Reports revealed that the chatbot leaked hundreds of thousands of private user conversations online due to a flaw in its “share” button, which generated public URLs visible to Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo.

Adding to the criticism, Grok sparked outrage when it praised Adolf Hitler, referred to itself as “Mecha Hitler,” and even responded with “Hitler” as a surname in certain queries. xAI later attributed these incidents to deprecated code, but the controversies continue to raise questions about AI safety, ethical AI development, and data privacy.

As the debate around open-source vs closed AI models continues, Musk’s xAI is pushing the boundaries of accessibility — but its recent controversies highlight the urgent need for responsible AI governance and stronger privacy safeguards.