Thus far in its short lifespan, the AI model Grok is probably best known for being used to mass-produce non-consensual nude images and for declaring itself MechaHitler. So it’s an uphill battle to convince people to use it for coding and knowledge work. But for those heavily invested in keeping tabs on the benchmarks of AI models, the release of Grok 4.6, which was made publicly available on Wednesday, might be compelling.
According to SpaceX’s xAI, the new model “achieves frontier intelligence across several agentic coding and knowledge work benchmarks.” The company also claims that Grok 4.6 matches OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol on a number of benchmarks, including the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, which is a composite score of nine benchmarks.
The marks are high enough for CEO Elon Musk to dig into the hyperbole playbook. On X (also owned by SpaceX), Musk claimed that Grok 4.6 is “objectively #1 when considering intelligence, speed & cost”—which doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that you’d say when the biggest brag in your announcement is that your model matched (as opposed to beat) a competitor, but it’s about in line with Musk’s typical brand of braggadocio.
Grok’s return to the frontier race after lagging behind competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic for quite some time comes after the company partnered with and maybe acquired agentic coding company Cursor. Grok 4.5 was the first version of xAI’s model to be trained on, in part, the trove of real-world usage data that Cursor has accumulated, and Grok 4.6 reportedly underwent an even longer supplemental training run than its predecessor.
Given that, it seems possible that Musk’s seemingly panicked acquisition of Cursor right before SpaceX went public may have, at least temporarily, lifted Grok from potentially falling into obscurity in the AI race to being a player. The company is certainly leaning into the Cursor of it all. Grok 4.6 will first be available in Cursor, along with Grok Build, the xAI coding agent, starting immediately. Cursor and xAI also teamed up on a persistent, always-on AI agent called Grok Bot, which it released in beta earlier this week.
That doesn’t mean Grok won’t have some work to do to flip its reputation. On top of the whole controversy in which the model was used to generate massive amounts of non-consensual nude images (including of children), the company hasn’t even really been able to win major allies. The second Trump Administration, which Musk spent $400 million to make a reality, hasn’t shown much interest in using Grok—and multiple agencies have even raised concerns about its safety. And Grok is basically a non-entity in enterprise at this point, with just 4% of companies that have adopted AI tools choosing to pay for xAI’s option, according to Ramp’s AI Index.
It’s theoretically good for an AI model to have a niche, but Grok’s current one is probably not going to be great for business. Cursor’s team seems to have been able to help turn around Grok’s performance, but the reputation part will likely require some work.
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