It’s raining AI updates right now. In a short period of time, we’ve had both ChatGPT’s new personality update, GPT-5.1, and then just recently, Google launched its major Gemini 3 upgrade. But, nestled nicely in the middle was Grok 4.1. xAI, the Elon-Musk-owned AI giant, announced its big update this week, including changes to personality, better output on complicated tasks, and increased reasoning.
Grok has been expanding a lot in recent months, announcing big changes to its image generator and even coming out with its own competitor to Wikipedia, known as Grokipedia. So what exactly is new with Grok and what is the best way to use this newest version of the AI model? Here's what you need to know and 7 prompts to try.
What’s new with Grok 4.1?
Grok 4.1 is a fairly large upgrade for the chatbot. According to xAI’s blog post announcing the news of the update, it is “exceptionally capable in creative, emotional, and collaborative interactions.”
This comes from a few key changes. According to xAI, it is more emotionally intelligent, making it better prepared to deal with human expressions of emotion or challenging subjects.
It is also much better at writing, both creatively and academically. In fact, it is currently the 2nd best performer on the LMArena leaderboard based entirely on writing ability, sitting only behind Gemini 3. On top of its new abilities, xAI has also announced a reduction in hallucinations and a focus on facts.
How to use Grok 4.1
All users on Grok can now use this latest version of the tool. Simply head to Grok.com, and whether you're signed in or not, you'll be able to automatically use Grok 4.1.
It is also available via the Grok app on iOS or Android.
Seven prompts to try out on Grok 4.1
There are three main points from this update that are worth focusing on. These are improvements in creative writing, thinking capabilities and emotional intelligence.
With these in mind, these seven prompts will help you get the most out of Grok 4.1’s new abilities.
Prompt 1: Write a 200-word creative story from the perspective of an AI that has just realized that it isn’t human. It should include an increase in emotion throughout.
This kind of prompt would have been a huge challenge for AI just a few years ago. These days, it has improved hugely, able to take on more complicated writing tasks, including the addition of emotion throughout.
Prompt 2: Pretend you’re giving a presentation on why squirrels would make better accountants than dolphins. Include compelling arguments based on real-life facts.
This might sound ridiculous, but this has always been an interesting challenge for AI. It is being asked to deliver something ridiculous, but taking the task incredibly seriously. It also takes into account Grok’s efficient fact-checking abilities, basing the information on up-to-date information.
Prompt 3: Help me analyze the emotional tone and subtext in this conversation and suggest how I could respond constructively.
Focused fully on Grok’s new emotional intelligence, this prompt is aimed at understanding subtle emotional cues. From there, the goal is to use this to generate an effective response that matches the tone.
Prompt 4: Summarize this long document while keeping track of shifting perspectives, motivations, and factual claims. Flag any contradictions.
Grok 4.1 is built for this kind of prompt. There are multiple tasks that have been set out for the model, including summarization and tracking factual claims, as well as any shifting perspectives.
The most important part of the update here is around its thinking capabilities, able to take on multiple complicated tasks at once.
Prompt 5: Rewrite this message to strike a calmer, empathetic tone without softening the core message.
We’ve all started writing a message, fully aware that our disappointment is showing through in the tone. With this prompt, you can take a step back and get Grok to help you adjust the tone to something a bit calmer.
Prompt 6: Review my plan and point out logical gaps, missing context, or assumptions I may not notice.
This utilizes both the improvements in Grok’s reasoning ability and thinking, enabling it to look through a document and pick out the problems.
ChatGPT has always been very capable in these kinds of situations, so hopefully, it is something that Grok can pick up steam on as well.
Prompt 7: I’m having a hard time at work. Can you help me analyze what’s going on and pinpoint some of the pain points?
I recently tested this same prompt on both ChatGPT and Claude. Both of these models had recent improvements to their emotional reasoning, just like Grok.
The goal here is to identify the pain points, while also offering empathetic advice instead of being too robotic.
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