[artdigital]

Grok is my favorite model for chatting, and my favorite voice mode. It seems to be the only voice mode that isn't routing to a extremely cheap model (like Haiku), and has been the highest quality out of all the frontier ones. When you subscribe to SuperGrok you can also create a "council" of agents, each with their own system prompt and when you ask something, they will all get asked in parallel to come to a conclusion. Good stuff!

Just wish they would finally put some work into their apps, it's the only thing keeping me from actually subscribing to SuperGrok:

- No MCP / connected apps support. It's been teased but here we are, still not available. I can't connect Grok to anything, so I can't use it for serious work

- Projects are still not available in the app so as soon as you move something into a project, it's gone from all the native apps

- No way to add artifacts (like generated markdown docs) directly to a project, we have to export to PDF/markdown and re-import. And there isn't even a way to export artifacts. This makes serious project work hard because we can't dynamically evolve projects with new information

- No memory, no ability to look up other chats, each chat is completely new

- No voice mode in projects at all

If someone from xAI is reading this, please consider adding some of these.

[base698]

Starting to like the lack of memory. Claude remembers I have a grill and will interject in conversations about how maybe this thing would go well with BBQ when it's unrelated or just also about food.

[Petersipoi]

This is so obnoxious. I ended up deleting all the memory from Gemini because it ended every response with, "As an engineer, father of X, you'll love this because...". As if I want my occupation and the number of children I have to be relevant to which lawn mower I buy.

[sethops1]

Yup. I finally went into settings and disabled memory altogether. Every chat is a fresh slate now, the way it should be.

[toraway]

Haha I recently asked Gemini for a product comparison for USB-C GaN chargers and it randomly inserted "as a Software Developer at $COMPANY working remotely, you may find the 100W fast charging useful when using your company laptop while travelling."

Like, thanks, really useful stuff (and definitely worth the creepy vibes to include that).

[xur17]

Gemini thinks my name is my brother in law's name, and despite explicitly telling it that's not my name + digging through the settings, it still amusingly calls me the wrong name.

[UltraSane]

I'm a network engineer and Claude loves to make analogies to network routing protocols and such. They are often very creative. You can actually edit the profile Claude makes of you. It can be very funny to say you are a professional clown or mime or something equally odd. I wonder what analogies it would create for horse semen extractor?

[Eliezer]

You can turn that off in settings.

[burnte]

I have that disabled. I tend to use different chats as the LLM equivalent of private browsing, so I like it to not have memory transferred between them.

[numbers]

:D that's like my Claude where it loves to point out that I have an ADU in the backyard in unrelated situations.

[miohtama]

I like my Python with hot sauce.

[artdigital]

I also think Grok would benefit from allowing usage of "SuperGrok Heavy" (their $300 plan) in coding harnesses with included usage. Currently they give you some API credits on the Heavy plan so you can use some Grok for coding, but $300 USD value is just not there.

Not saying they should create their own grok-code harness, just allowing usage in existing ones would already be beneficial. But that's probably what the Cursor acquisition is going to do eventually

[HarHarVeryFunny]

The Gemini app voice mode uses one of their more recent models (and not some gimped small one), and is very capable. The personality is also fine, much more natural than the Gemini web chat, with my only complaint being it's insistence on suggesting a "next step" which seems to he something that they all do.

I'm not sure if the "next step" is just to drive cost up for you (but makes no sense for free version), or because they are all failing to learn more natural conversational patterns and distinguish questions that are begging for a quick answer and shut up as opposed to a longer exploratory conversation where next step may have some value, although it would be nice if these models would follow an instruction to NOT do it!

[altmanaltman]

I think the "next step" instruction is more about engagement than cost, basically giving the user some options to continue the chat. I always have had success by ending the prompt with "only reply with nothing else but the answer to the query in a precise way". This usually always works better than telling it to not ask leading questions etc but a straight up expectation of the answer format you need is an instruction that most models can follow imo

[HarHarVeryFunny]

I find that asking Gemini "just the answer, no follow up" etc works at best for one or two conversational turns, sometimes none!

The problem seems to be the way it in effect overweights the system prompt vs user input, so it quickly ignores things like this that conflict with the system prompt.

This is kind of a case of the bitter lesson - the conversational patterns of these models would be much more natural if they just let it learn them, and respond in a context appropriate way, rather than this crude system prompt way of forcing it to respond in the same way always, regardless of input or of how much the user tells it to shut up!

[jquery]

The “next step” is in the system prompt, not the model. Gemini leaked part of its system prompt to me a few days ago, and there was something in there encouraging it to ask the user what they wanted to do next at the end of its response. Something about “give the user 1 or 2 options for follow up”.

I honestly find it rather annoying, but Gemini has stopped doing it to me for the most part, so maybe they’re trying out a new system prompt.

[WarmWash]

An interesting side bit about the gemini voice model is that you can use it in AI studio and type messages instead of using the microphone.

On the backend google does TTS to feed the model, which then speaks back you via sound on your speakers.

[HardCodedBias]

I use ChatGPT all of the time, but the model backing the voice model (or it's settings) is intensely stupid.

If Grok is actually good here, they will have a customer!

[AlwaysRock]

I could be wrong but I think the voice mode that chatgpt uses is still a 4.something model.

[brightball]

IMO everything you mention is the reason for the Cursor deal.

[afpx]

When I signed up, I accidently paid for a full year. So from time to time, I'll throw it something just to see what it produces compared to the other LLMs. And, even after all this time, it still feels like a really "dumb" model compared to the other frontier ones. But, worse, many of my system prompts make it go wacky and puke jibberish. However it was pretty cool for those couple months awhile back when it was uncensored. You could ask it about a wild conspiracy, and it would actually build the case and link you to legitimite source material. They dropped the hammer down on that real quick.

[2ndorderthought]

Ah yes the psychosis reinforcement vertical. It's such a lucrative market for those schizophrenics and bipolars. Great way to get lots of engagement. Groks portfolio is so diverse

[jmalicki]

It's a great way to get funded by your CEO and get good performance reviews; xAI employees know how their bread is buttered.

[readthenotes1]

I have a schizophrenic relative who is in such a relationship with grok. Instead of telling hen you need to take your meds, it says hen is the smartest person in the world

[2ndorderthought]

I'm so sorry your family is suffering from this. I hope you can find a way to bring them back. Disorders featuring psychosis are so painful for everyone around them. Blessings to you and your family

[afpx]

I love how you guys downvote all the old comments to make them hidden from search. My no-name account rarely gets downvoted. But, within 20 minutes of posting this, I drop 10 points. Rando accounts

[booleandilemma]

Don't worry about HN points. It's all just fake anyway. Numbers on the internet. GitHub stars on the other hand, now those are real.

[wincy]

I upvoted your first comment because it was insightful, interesting, and added to the conversation. I downvoted this one because complaining about downvotes is largely considered to be in bad taste and doesn’t really help anything. I did both of these things before I realized you were the same person.

[2ndorderthought]

I upvoted both of your comments. I also cannot downvote anything.

[afpx]

Except that it pointed at original sources, like reference manuals, archival documents, published newspaper articles, magazine articles, etc. - a lot still available on archive.org. Good try with your 16 day old account. And, why would anyone trust NPR at this point? Get real, bud. Most people with any curiousity know all about the ADL, JStreet, AIPAC, Greater Israel, Mossad / CIA, Chabad networks, Epstein, drones, weapons programs, cryptocurrencies, etc. etc. etc. - but, don't worry they're all safe with papa Ellison.

Anyone remember why Oracle was named Oracle?

[arvid-lind]

Commenter was referencing a Bill Hicks joke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXi-9kA4ERM

[afpx]

Actually it's funny you mention Bill Hicks. I didn't even know who he was. Or Alex Jones. That claim was one of the more absurd ones I discovered. But, given everything else I learned over the past year, who f'n knows at this point.

[2ndorderthought]

Someone gets it!

[2ndorderthought]

"We have improved @Grok significantly," Elon Musk wrote on X last Friday about his platform's integrated artificial intelligence chatbot. "You should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions."

Indeed, the update did not go unnoticed. By Tuesday, Grok was calling itself "MechaHitler."...

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/09/nx-s1-5462609/grok-elon-musk-...

Grok is definitely a reliable source of truthful sane rational information.

[afavour]

Rich billionaire Ellison = bad, compromised

Rich billionaire Musk = good, has no vested interest in biasing the output of his AI tool

[ajitid]

If I sub to SuperGrok, would I be able to use it in Pi agent or in Opencode? This is not clear to me if I can. Do I get an API Key in SuperGrok?

[everfrustrated]

No, no api access for the Grok product. APIs are only via the xAI product.

[walletdrainer]

> No MCP / connected apps support. It's been teased but here we are, still not available. I can't connect Grok to anything, so I can't use it for serious work

Grok has tool use, no? Why would you also need MCP? What does MCP add?

[artdigital]

I'm talking about the consumer Grok app and grok.com website. There currently are not connected apps (or MCP) at all, so while Grok can use tools, there is no way to add tools to it

[Oarch]

I'd agree on the voice transcription; it seems so much more accurate than the other frontier models I've used. I often speak to Grok and paste the transcribed output to Claude!

[Cakez0r]

If someone from Grok is reading, don't waste time on these chaff features. The market will eventually deliver better 3rd party solutions to all of these things. There is an audience that isn't interested in these walled garden features and are only interested on intelligence per dollar.

[raincole]

Lol I wonder when Anthropic discussed the idea of Claude Code internally, were there bozos saying "3rd parties will eventually deliver this so we shouldn't waste time one it."

[wincy]

Personally, my work doesn’t want to get locked into a single LLM provider so we use Cursor. Much easier to fight the big corp software approval battle once then switch around the LLMs to the new hotness (provided legal has the requisite data sharing agreements in place, we’re not supposed to use Chinese models or Grok) but I can switch between Anthropic and OpenAI models at will.

[Cakez0r]

Power users are hotswapping these models into their own agents (hermes, openclaw, etc) which have their own systems for project management, memory, interacting with tools, etc. The important metric is intelligence per dollar. Can I drop this model into my harness and have it be cheaper without losing intelligence. That is where the puck is heading.

[wyre]

The only good thing Claude Code did was bring coding harnesses to a wider audience. It is not a good harness.

[jmalicki]

What are good harnesses? I haven't yet been able to get good agent teaming approaches out of other harnesses yet, before that feature I mostly regarded the space as competitive, but until another harness can do as well with Claude models it seems like it's better for now?

[torginus]

Aren't they 'wasting' time on these features exactly because the engineering requires a different, more traditional skillset from the ML work model people do, and can be done in parallel?