Grok 4 vs. a PhD: Is AI Smarter Than Human Experts?

8/13/2025

Explaining the Hype: Is Grok 4 Smarter Than a Human with a PhD?

You’ve probably seen the headlines. Elon Musk’s xAI has unleashed its latest creation, Grok 4, & the claims are nothing short of astounding. "The smartest AI in the world," Musk says. An AI that is "better than PhD level in everything." It’s the kind of statement that stops you in your tracks & makes you wonder if we’re on the cusp of a true intelligence explosion. The numbers seem to back it up, with Grok 4 achieving perfect or near-perfect scores on a whole battery of tests, from the SATs to graduate-level exams.

But here’s the thing, as someone who’s been following the AI space for a while, I’ve learned that headlines often don’t tell the whole story. The question of whether Grok 4 is “smarter” than a human with a PhD is a lot more complicated than a simple yes or no. It’s a question that forces us to really think about what we mean by “smart.”

So, let’s break it down. Let’s look at the hype, the reality, & what this all means for the future of work, intelligence, & our relationship with technology.

The Benchmarks are Bonkers, But…

First, let’s give credit where credit is due. The performance of Grok 4 on standardized tests is, frankly, mind-boggling. We’re talking about an AI that doesn’t just pass these exams; it demolishes them.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of its reported achievements:

Perfect SAT scores: Consistently, on questions it has never seen before.
Near-perfect GRE results: Across a wide range of subjects, including humanities, math, & physics.
Dominance on specialized benchmarks: It’s a top performer on tests like the AIME (Math Olympiad), GPQA (Graduate-Level Science), & SWE-Bench (Coding).
Humanity’s Last Exam (HLE): This is a particularly interesting one. The HLE is a collection of 2,500 incredibly difficult problems designed to stump AI. While most models score in the single digits, Grok 4 solved 25% of them without any tools, & the multi-agent version, Grok 4 Heavy, tackled over 50%. For comparison, humans are estimated to score around 5% on these same problems.

These are not trivial accomplishments. They demonstrate an incredible ability to process information, reason through complex problems, & generate solutions at a level that surpasses most humans in those specific domains. For any task that can be distilled down to a set of rules & a body of knowledge, Grok 4 is likely to come out on top. It’s like having a superhuman research assistant who has read every book, every article, & every study ever published, & can recall & synthesize that information in an instant.

But, and this is a BIG but, does that make it “smarter” in the way we typically think of human intelligence?

The Achilles' Heel of AI: Common Sense & Creativity

Here’s where the conversation gets a lot more nuanced. While Grok 4 can solve a PhD-level physics problem, it might struggle with a task a five-year-old can do with ease. This is the paradox of AI: incredible a dvances in specialized intelligence, but a persistent lack of what we might call “general intelligence” or, more simply, common sense.

Even Elon Musk himself has admitted that Grok 4 "may lack common sense." This isn’t a minor footnote; it’s a fundamental limitation of current AI technology. AI models are trained on massive datasets of text & code, which allows them to recognize patterns & make predictions. But they don't understand the world in the way we do. They haven't lived in it, interacted with it, or developed the kind of intuitive grasp of physics, psychology, & social dynamics that we all have.

This is why AI can write a sonnet in the style of Shakespeare, but it can’t tell you if a crosswalk is the same as a zebra, a classic example of where AI struggles with context & real-world understanding.

Then there's the issue of creativity. While AI can generate novel combinations of words or ideas, it's essentially remixing what it's already seen. It can create a beautiful image in the style of Van Gogh, but it can't be Van Gogh. It can't have a new, original thought that is born from lived experience, emotion, & a unique perspective on the world. True creativity, the kind that leads to paradigm-shifting scientific discoveries or breathtaking works of art, is still very much a human endeavor.

And what about emotional intelligence? AI can be trained to recognize & respond to human emotions, but it can’t feel them. It can’t offer genuine empathy, build a real connection, or navigate the complex social landscape of a workplace or a friendship. These are all critical components of human intelligence that can't be measured by a multiple-choice test.

So, Are the Benchmarks Useless?

Not at all. But we need to be clear about what they’re measuring. These benchmarks are incredibly useful for tracking progress in specific areas of AI development, like reasoning, knowledge synthesis, & problem-solving. They push the field forward & lead to more capable & useful AI tools.

However, they are not a reliable measure of general intelligence. As some researchers have pointed out, many popular benchmarks have flaws, contain biases, or can be "gamed" by models that are trained to excel at the test rather than to be genuinely intelligent. There’s also the problem of data contamination, where the answers to benchmark questions might have been included in the model's training data, leading to memorization rather than true problem-solving.

The bottom line is that we need to be skeptical of grand claims based solely on benchmark performance. They are one piece of the puzzle, but they are not the whole picture.

The Real Revolution: Human-AI Collaboration

So, if Grok 4 isn’t going to replace our PhDs just yet, what is it good for?

This is where I think the real excitement lies. The future isn't about "AI vs. humans"; it's about "AI plus humans." It’s about augmented intelligence, where AI takes on the tasks it’s good at – processing vast amounts of data, finding patterns, automating routine work – and frees up humans to focus on what we do best: creativity, critical thinking, strategic planning, & building relationships.

Think about it. A scientist with a PhD could use Grok 4 to instantly analyze massive datasets, review all the existing literature on a topic, & generate new hypotheses to test. This could accelerate the pace of scientific discovery in ways we can only imagine. A doctor could use an AI assistant to get a second opinion on a complex diagnosis or to create a personalized treatment plan based on the latest research.

In the business world, this kind of collaboration is already happening. Companies are using AI-powered tools to handle all sorts of tasks, from customer service to marketing to software development. And here’s where a tool like Arsturn comes into the picture. Arsturn helps businesses build no-code AI chatbots trained on their own data. These chatbots can be deployed on a website to provide instant customer support, answer frequently asked questions, & engage with visitors 24/7.

This is a perfect example of human-AI collaboration. The AI chatbot handles the repetitive, high-volume inquiries, freeing up human customer service agents to focus on the more complex, nuanced, & emotionally charged customer issues that require a human touch. The business gets more efficient, customers get faster answers, & employees get to do more interesting & fulfilling work. It’s a win-win-win.

This is the real promise of AI like Grok 4. It’s not about replacing human experts, but about augmenting their abilities & making them even better at their jobs. It’s about creating a future where technology amplifies human potential & helps us solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

So, What's the Verdict?

Is Grok 4 smarter than a human with a PhD?

If by “smarter” you mean the ability to process information & solve well-defined problems in a narrow domain at superhuman speed & scale, then the answer is probably yes.

But if your definition of “smarter” includes common sense, creativity, emotional intelligence, & the ability to navigate the messy, unpredictable real world, then the answer is a resounding no.

The hype around Grok 4 is understandable. It’s a remarkable piece of technology that represents a significant leap forward in AI capabilities. But it’s important to keep it in perspective. We are not on the verge of creating a new form of consciousness that will render human intelligence obsolete.

What we are on the verge of is a new era of human-AI collaboration, where our own intelligence is augmented & amplified by these powerful new tools. And honestly, that’s a much more exciting & hopeful future to think about.

I hope this was helpful in cutting through some of the hype & giving you a more nuanced perspective on this fascinating topic. Let me know what you think in the comments below