Elon Musk’s startup rolls out new Grok-3 chatbot as AI competition intensifies

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has introduced Grok-3, the latest iteration of its chatbot that integrates with X, formerly Twitter.Grok-3 debut comes at a critical moment in the AI arms race as Musk looks to compete with the Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google. Musk’s bot has seen less widespread adoption than DeepSeek’s namesake chatbot, which wowed the world weeks ago and caused panic in stock markets, as well as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.Grok-3 is being rolled out immediately to Premium+ subscribers of X, the social media platform owned by Musk. xAI is also launching a new subscription tier, SuperGrok, for users accessing the chatbot via its mobile app and Grok

Elon Musk keeps bringing his kids to work – and the reasons aren’t cute at all | Arwa Mahdawi

Welcome to the White House, where every day seems to be bring-your-kid-to-work-day if you’re Elon Musk. The tech billionaire, fascist-salute-enthusiast, and de facto president of the US hasn’t just moved himself into government digs – he has seemingly moved in a selection of his kids as well. Over the last couple of weeks, mini-Musks have been popping up at high-profile political events, generating a steady stream of memes, headlines and analysis.Three of Musk’s young children were at a meeting with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi last Thursday, for example. Why were Musk and Modi meeting? Good question

Meta plans to link US and India with world’s longest undersea cable project

Meta has announced plans to build the world’s longest underwater cable project, which aims to connect the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and other regions.The tech company said Project Waterworth involved a 50,000km (31,000-mile) subsea cable, which is longer than the Earth’s circumference.The cable would be the longest to date that uses a 24 fibre-pair system, giving it a higher capacity, and would help support its AI projects, according to Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.Meta said in a blog post: “Project Waterworth will bring industry-leading connectivity to the US, India, Brazil, South Africa, and other key regions.“This project will enable greater economic cooperation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open opportunities for technological development in these regions

Lessons for Elon Musk from the original Doge | Brief letters

As Elon Musk’s unelected “Doge” troops slash and burn US federal departments (Elon Musk appears with Trump and tries to claim ‘Doge’ team is transparent, 12 February), it is ironic to note that the Doges of ancient Venice were always elected, and by a process that was designed to avoid wealthy families taking too much power.John JacobsAlton, Hampshire I agree with your correspondents about the difficulty of hearing the lyrics in musicals (Letters, 13 February), but there’s little mention of the problem in cinemas, where conversations are drowned out by background music. In the recent film about Bob Dylan, Timothée Chalamet perfectly captured the musician’s mumble. What words he actually said remain A Complete Unknown.Joanna RimmerNewcastle upon Tyne Re the letters on analogue photography (14 February), there is a good compromise

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review: still the superphone to beat

The Ultra is Samsung’s largest and greatest phone and is packed to the gills with the very latest technology, which means more artificial intelligence than ever before.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Galaxy S25 Ultra is at the front of the line of a new wave of Android phones that promise to basically do everything for you

Protesters target Tesla showrooms in US over Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting

Protesters gathered outside Tesla dealerships across the US on Saturday in response to Elon Musk’s efforts to shred government spending under the president, Donald Trump.Groups of demonstrators up to 100-strong gathered outside the electric carmaker’s showrooms in cities including New York, Seattle, Kansas City and across California. Organisers said the protests took place in dozens of locations.While the protests were scattered, they highlighted the risks to the car company of Musk’s close association with Trump’s radical rightwing agenda. Many of the protesters carried placards likening the Trump administration to Nazis – a characterisation that Musk has previously emphatically denied