Two things from the past 48 hours that affect your work: xAI released Grok 4.7, and the Dutch Data Protection Authority issued a clear warning about camera glasses. The second is the more important for most Dutch organisations.
Grok 4.7: more compute time, unchanged rates
On 21 September, xAI launched Grok 4.7, available via its own API, Cursor and Grok Build. Prices remain the same as those for Grok 4.6: according to xAI's official model page, you pay $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens for prompts under 200,000 tokens, and double ($4 and $12) above that. Cached input costs $0.50 per million. The context window is 500K tokens.
The gain lies in the approach, not the price: a larger base model and a longer reinforcement-learning phase, aimed at multi-step tasks that take hours. Mind the catch that Superpower Daily points out: reasoning for longer means more tokens per task, so your bill can rise even if the rate stays the same. And the benchmark scores (CursorBench 4.0: 46.3%, Terminal-Bench 4.0: 38.0%) come from xAI itself, Artificial Analysis measured 26% on Terminal-Bench. Run your own test on your own tasks before you switch, especially in software development.
The GDPR picture does not change: Grok has no EU data residency, and training is on by default with an opt-out. For confidential or regulated data it therefore remains a difficult choice, see the model comparison and our safety page.
The Dutch DPA on camera glasses: sharing is almost never allowed just like that
Today the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) published a warning about camera glasses. If you film or photograph others with such glasses, you generally may not simply use, share or publish that footage: the recognisable people are entitled to protection. AP board member Katja Mur: "People must be able to walk the streets without fear of being secretly filmed." (report via ANP, BeveiligingNieuws)
Two points you should act on concretely:
- The little light is not enough. The indicator light that on many glasses shows that recording is taking place is, in the AP's view, insufficient to properly inform people. In public spaces, informing everyone in advance and asking for consent is practically almost impossible.
- Settle it in your house rules. The AP advises owners and managers to ban wearing and using camera glasses in places such as hospitals, courts and religious buildings. The AP is also investigating further measures against camera glasses and other wearables with cameras.
If you work in healthcare, mental health care or at a law firm, this is not a theoretical issue: an AI pair of glasses watching along in a consultation room or waiting area processes special category personal data. Hospitality and education would also do well to review their house rules.
In practice: state camera glasses explicitly in your house rules and in your staff code of conduct, and include them in your DPIA if you experiment with smart glasses. That is now a lot easier to explain than afterwards.
