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.
replyI'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!
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”.
replyI 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.
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.
replyOn the backend google does TTS to feed the model, which then speaks back you via sound on your speakers.
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
replyStarting 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.
replyI 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.
replyNot 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
I use ChatGPT all of the time, but the model backing the voice model (or it's settings) is intensely stupid.
replyIf Grok is actually good here, they will have a customer!
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!
replyIf 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?
replyNo, no api access for the Grok product.
APIs are only via the xAI product.
replyWhen 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.
replyAh 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
replyIt's a great way to get funded by your CEO and get good performance reviews; xAI employees know how their bread is buttered.
replyI 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
replyI'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
replyI 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
replyI 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.
replyYes, for sure I deserve downvotes for the above. Those types of comments should be downvoted. However, I needed to post it to point out that I got the -10 well before the comment above. I never experienced that before and thought it interesting enough to share. Karma doesn't mean anything to me personally. But burst behavior like that is unusual.
replydeleted
replyI upvoted both of your comments. I also cannot downvote anything.
replyExcept 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.
replyAnyone remember why Oracle was named Oracle?
Commenter was referencing a Bill Hicks joke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXi-9kA4ERM
replyActually 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.
replydeleted
replySomeone gets it!
replyRich billionaire Ellison = bad, compromised
replyRich billionaire Musk = good, has no vested interest in biasing the output of his AI tool
"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."
replyIndeed, 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.
> 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
replyGrok has tool use, no? Why would you also need MCP? What does MCP add?
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
replyIf 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.
replyLol 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."
replyPersonally, 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.
replyPower 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.
replyThe only good thing Claude Code did was bring coding harnesses to a wider audience. It is not a good harness.
replyWhat 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?
replyAren'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?
reply