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Musk’s Grok 3 is here—and it’s thinking bigger

Plus, Humane shuts down 'AI Pin'

AuthorAuthor

Tak Lo & Daniel Akpobare
February 19, 2025

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Hello and welcome to the Automated, your AI tour guide.

While one company is charging ahead with innovation, another is throwing in the towel—or at least, calling it quits for now. But hey, let’s break it all down for you.

Here’s what we have for you today:

  • 🤩 Musk’s New AI Steps Into the Ring!

  • 😯 Humane Shuts Down AI Pin, Sells Tech and Team to HP for $116M.

  • 👍 7 of the best use cases for ChatGPT's GPT-4o model.

  • 📂 How Gemini can help you find buried Google Drive files with ease.

  • 🤖 ChatGPT Prompt Of The Day: Find Research Methodologies

🤩 Musk’s New AI Steps Into the Ring.

Elon Musk’s xAI just unleashed Grok 3, its latest AI model, and let’s just say—it’s already making waves.

Trained on a 200,000-GPU supercomputer, Grok 3 is supposedly 10 times more powerful than Grok 2. Musk even calls it a "maximally truth-seeking AI"—which, knowing him, probably means it’ll be stirring up some controversy.

But here’s the kicker: Grok 3 isn’t just one model—it’s an entire family.

There’s Grok 3 Mini for faster responses (though at the cost of some accuracy) and a reasoning-focused Grok 3 with a “Big Brain” mode that actually “thinks” before answering—making it less likely to embarrass itself with nonsense.

Supposedly, these models outperform OpenAI’s GPT-4o on complex math and science problems.

Also, some of the reasoning models’ “thoughts” are obscured in the Grok app so as to prevent distillation, (a method used by AI model developers to extract knowledge from other models).

And that’s not all.

Grok now comes with DeepSearch, xAI’s answer to AI-powered research tools like OpenAI’s Deep Research and DeepSeek’s R1.

This feature lets Grok scan the internet (and X itself) to deliver well-researched answers instead of just, well, making things up.

But access isn’t free—early adopters will need to cough up $50/month for X Premium+, and if you want the full AI buffet—including unlimited image generation and DeepSearch—you’ll have to subscribe to SuperGrok ($30/month), a supposedly new premium tier.

And just when you thought Musk was done, he dropped more news.

Grok will soon get a voice, thanks to an upcoming voice mode, followed by the availability of Grok 3 via xAI’s enterprise API for businesses.

Oh, and once Grok 3 is stable, Grok 2 will be open-sourced—because, naturally, when a shiny new toy arrives, the old one gets tossed aside.

Of course, Musk has always pitched Grok as a rebellious, unfiltered alternative to mainstream AI, but earlier versions still played it safe on political topics.

Now, he’s vowed to make Grok more “politically neutral”—but whether that starts with Grok 3, and whether it’ll actually win people over or just fuel fresh controversies, is a whole other question.

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 😯 Humane Shuts Down AI Pin, Sells Tech and Team to HP for $116M.

After a disastrous launch and scathing reviews, Humane is pulling the plug on its AI Pin.

The company announced today that it is selling most of its assets—including its CosmOS software, patents, and technical team—to HP for $116 million.

AI Pin sales will stop immediately, and existing devices will lose cloud-based functionality on February 28th.

Humane’s AI Pin was supposed to be a revolutionary wearable AI assistant, but from the moment it launched in April 2024, it was plagued with problems.

Tech reviewers ripped it apart—The Verge bluntly stated, “it just doesn’t work,” while MKBHD called it “the worst product I’ve ever reviewed.”

Reports of poor sales and high return rates only fueled speculation that Humane was in trouble.

By August, the company was already looking for a buyer, initially seeking a valuation of $1 billion—far from the $116 million HP is now paying.

With this acquisition, HP gains over 300 patents, along with Humane’s AI-focused operating system, CosmOS.

Humane’s founders, Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, along with their team, will join HP under a new division called HP IQ.

This unit will focus on integrating AI across HP’s products, including PCs, printers, and conference room tech.

For existing AI Pin users, the clock is ticking.

Humane warns that all cloud-based features—including AI responses, messaging, and voice interactions—will stop working at 3 PM ET on February 28, 2025.

Users have until then to download any stored photos, videos, or notes before they are permanently deleted.

Refunds will only be available for those still within the 90-day return window, with prorated refunds for subscription payments beyond the shutdown date.

Once a hyped-up AI startup that raised $230 million, Humane now becomes another cautionary tale of over-promising and under-delivering in the fast-moving AI industry.

Own an AI Pin? 

Make sure to back up your data and check if you're eligible for a refund before the shutdown!

Click here to read more about Humane’s shutdown and HP’s next move.

✍️ Editor’s Corner

One of the biggest crypto conference franchises, Consensus, is hosting its event here in Hong Kong this week.

I’m in town but haven’t signed up for any of their events.

Instead, I’m busy drafting my new book Sovereign Man: A Journey through Self Sovereignty in the Age of AI, drafting a consulting proposal to the Malaysian government for AI safety, and thinking about the intersection of AI and geopolitics.

With AI being such a critical part of my workflow and a force multiplier, meetings really have to potentially bring a lot of value until it makes sense for me to go.

I think everyone should integrate AI into their workflow in such a way.

Cheers,

Tak Lo (Editor at The Automated, AI entrepreneur and thought leader. More at thetaklo.com)

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🤖ChatGPT Prompt Of The Day: Find Research Methodologies

Whether you're exploring qualitative or quantitative methods or you're simply trying to understand the best approach for your topic, this prompt will help you find a method that aligns with your research objectives. 

Act as an academic research expert. Your task is to suggest appropriate methodologies for researching [topic]. Provide a comprehensive list of both qualitative and quantitative research methods that are best suited for the subject matter. Justify each methodology's relevance and potential advantages, ensuring they align with the research objectives. Additionally, address any potential limitations or challenges of each method, and offer potential solutions or alternative approaches. Your suggestions should be rooted in academic literature, ensuring their validity and appropriateness for academic research.

We've Compiled a List of Over 100 ChatGPT Power Prompts.

This should help streamline your interactions with ChatGPT and get the results you need more efficiently.

Best of all, It's free!

That's all we've got for you today.

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