Elon Musk Says Grok 4.8 Will Not Be a Disappointment and Is Not Optimized for Benchmarks
@techdevnotes I know it’s taken longer than expected, but Grok 4.8 will not be a disappointment. We’re not optimizing for benchmarks and I really don’t care how Grok does on those, but it will be incredibly useful.
Context
It signals that xAI's next model is still coming after a delay, but the post gives no date, specs or results, so it is a teaser rather than news.
Elon Musk leads xAI, which makes the Grok models. Grok 4.7 is its current model and appears on several benchmark charts this week. Musk has teased Grok releases on X before, often with timelines that later slipped.
Deep dive
Elon Musk wrote early Friday, in a reply to the account techdevnotes, that he knows Grok 4.8 has taken longer than expected but that it will not be a disappointment.
According to the post, xAI is not optimizing Grok 4.8 for benchmarks, and Musk said he does not care how Grok does on them, but that the model will be incredibly useful.
The post gives no release date, no details about capabilities and no test results. It is a short reply rather than an announcement, which is why it sits at the bottom of today's deck.
The comment comes as benchmark charts released this week place Grok 4.7 behind leading models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google on some tests. On Cognition's FrontierCode 2.0, for example, Grok 4.7 scored 28.6 percent, below Claude Opus 5.5 at 45.5 percent. Musk's remark that benchmarks do not matter may partly respond to those comparisons.
xAI has released Grok updates frequently this year, and the company also added content moderation controls to the Grok API this week. Musk did not say whether Grok 4.8 will reach the API and the Grok app at the same time.
What to expect next
Watch for an official release date, a model card and independent tests once Grok 4.8 ships. Despite Musk's comments, users will judge it against rivals on benchmarks and real tasks. Past Grok timelines have often slipped, so treat any implied timing with caution until xAI announces the launch. Benchmark sites and coding tool makers such as Cognition will likely test it within days of release, giving the first outside view of whether it delivers.