Grok 4.6 • Hacker News Board

Re: Grok 4.6

#81

Post by Someone1234 » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:14 PM UTC

hackernan9000 wrote: post #48

Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #26

As polarizing as grok is, it was basically inevitable for it to start being a real competitor given how much investment SpaceX made into its own inference capabilities. Seems if you are okay with it, there's no reason to use anything but the highest effort levels of some other frontier models for the price. I think Grok provides healthy competition to the other labs, though I do think they bank on groks reputation ma…

Curious - what is the main issue you find polarizing with grok?

I'd start here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_(chatbot)#Controversies_a...

And here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_sexual_deepfake_scandal

I think polarizing is a generous way of describing the problems. My organization has outright banned Grok, because we don't trust SpaceX to hold up to contractual agreements vis-a-vis data-privacy/training. That's the level of reputational damage we're talking about here; and we use Chinese models (*hosted by US providers) for context.

Re: Grok 4.6

#82

Post by causal » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:15 PM UTC

dash2 wrote: post #68

causal wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, but my suspicion is tied to the timing. Catching up eventually is to be expected. Having similar jumps in capability ready at the same time is odd.

Maybe "readiness" is quite a flexible category? You're mid-training for your next model; a rival releases something; you clear the boards and release the model without completing the training run?

Touche, aborted training runs probably do happen often. Closed model providers have zero incentive to announce a new model with less-than-best benchmarks.

Re: Grok 4.6

#83

Post by porridgeraisin » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:15 PM UTC

dd8601fn wrote: post #76

arrosenberg wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the person you are responding to, but the fact that Grok is being used to generate a ton of CSAM and pornographic deepfakes isn't great!

Is that still a thing? I assumed they would have done something about it by now.

Yeah, that got stopped I think.

Re: Grok 4.6

#84

Post by re-thc » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:16 PM UTC

nater5000 wrote: post #49

It's crazy that I'd literally trust a Chinese AI company with my data over anything Musk is involved with. Like, even if you don't care about (or even like) his politics and can look past how unlikable he comes off as, the damage he's done to his own reputation in this domain just makes using his products like this a no-go. He's literally so rich that he can get caught personally looking through chat sessions and it…

> It's crazy that I'd literally trust a Chinese AI company with my data

It's crazy how much Chinese = bad the media or US companies have washed into you. Why lump it together?

Like any place and any company there are good and bad 1s.

It's not the Wild West over there...

Re: Grok 4.6

#85

Post by causal » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:16 PM UTC

extr wrote: post #80

causal wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does not explain timing

keep in mind fable = mythos which as been "done" since february. so the gap is not 2 months, it's more like - techniques probably started "working" in late 2025, now are trickling down to 2nd tier labs 9 months later.

Yeah that would make more sense, it's probably a tight community and word gets around when something starts working.

Re: Grok 4.6

#86

Post by anukin » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:16 PM UTC

sawjet wrote: post #52

[flagged]

The last time grok made these statement, I tried using it for my workflows and it did not perform as good as opus or even sonnet.

My guess is that xai benchmaxxes a lot but fails in actual capacity to produce good models.

Re: Grok 4.6

#87

Post by aturek » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC

oulipo wrote: post #66

nater5000 wrote: post #49

It's crazy that I'd literally trust a Chinese AI company with my data over anything Musk is involved with. Like, even if you don't care about (or even like) his politics and can look past how unlikable he comes off as, the damage he's done to his own reputation in this domain just makes using his products like this a no-go. He's literally so rich that he can get caught personally looking through chat sessions and it…

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Grok 4.6

#88

Post by jesse_dot_id » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC

sergiotapia wrote: post #59

world2vec wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Who cares? A knife can be used to murder people, I also disagree with the UKs retarded banning of knives. As long as Grok is forwarding these lunatics to the cops why should I care?

[flagged]

Re: Grok 4.6

#89

Post by r_lee » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC

causal wrote: post #46

Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure both Anthropic and OpenAI haven't necessarily been secretive that they have internal models that are much more capable than commercially available ones. It's probably a mix of all of that plus simply always keeping one in the chamber to 1up everyone else when the time is right.

The "one in the chamber" is another good candidate that could explain the timing.

I think this is the right one, iirc 5.6 came out quite soon after Opus 5 etc?

Re: Grok 4.6

#90

Post by VariousPrograms » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC

j_maffe wrote: post #55

sawjet wrote: post #52

[flagged]

[flagged]

There was that time Grok persistently brought up "white genocide" regardless of prompt, so I'd say Elon has a big personal role designing Grok's outputs!