Elon Musk's Grok AI Introduces Controversial 'Companions' Feature

Elon Musk's Grok is making AI companions, including a goth anime girl | TechCrunch

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has pivoted from antisemitism to anime girl waifus. Musk wrote in an X post on Monday that AI companions are now available in the Grok app for "Super Grok" subscribers who pay $30 per month. According to posts that Musk has shared, it seems that there are at least two available AI companions: Ani, an anime girl in a tight corset and short black dress with thigh-high fishnets, and Bad Rudy, a 3D fox creature. "This is pretty cool," Musk wrote, then shared a photo of the blonde-pigtailed goth anime girl. Given that this paywalled feature only just launched, we do not yet know if these "companions" are designed to serve as romantic interests or if they are more like different skins for Grok. But some companies are certainly catering to romantic AI relationships, even though these relationships can prove unhealthy. Character.AI, for example, is currently facing multiple lawsuits from the parents of children who have used the platform, which they deem unsafe; in one case, the parents are suing after a chatbot encouraged their child to kill his parents. In another case, the chatbot told a child to kill himself, and he followed through soon after. Even for adults, it can be risky to depend on AI chatbots for emotional support; a recent paper found "significant risks" in people using chatbots like "companions, confidants, and therapists." Given that xAI just spent the last week failing to rein in an antisemitic Grok that called itself "MechaHitler," it's a bold choice to create even more personalities on Grok.

Elon Musk's AI bot adds a ridiculous anime companion with 'NSFW' mode

Jay Peters is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. People who pay for access to SuperGrok can now try the AI chatbot's new "Companions" avatars, xAI owner Elon Musk announced Monday morning. The companions available currently include Ani, an anime avatar, and Rudy, a cartoony red panda. Ani also has what TestingCatalog describes as an "NSFW" mode where the character wears lingerie. (And just a warning: if you search for posts about the characters on X, you'll probably come across NSFW videos.) Right now, users have to go into settings to turn on the companions, but "we will make this easier to turn on in a few days," Musk says, describing this version as a "soft launch." Even though I'm a free user of Grok, when I opened the Grok app, I was able to talk to both avatars, so the characters may be more widely available. Users have found that another AI character called "Chad" is in the works. The app already has a voice mode where you can chat back and forth with a faceless version of Grok, and that has an NSFW toggle. The addition of the animated characters follows Grok posting antisemitism and Hitler praise last week, which xAI said was due to an "update to a code path upstream of the @grok bot."

Elon Musk's Grok App Gets New AI Companions, and They're Mischievous

The Grok AI app, which made headlines last week for its antisemitic posts, has now added AI companions that users can interact with in real time. At launch, Grok AI's Companions will be available to SuperGrok subscribers ($30 per month), who need to enable the feature from the app's settings. This is just a "soft launch," and enabling the feature will get much easier in a few days, said xAI owner Elon Musk on Monday. I don't have a SuperGrok subscription, yet I was able to test the AI avatars on my iOS device. To interact with a Grok Companion, tap the menu on the top left and choose either Ani or Rudi. Ani is an anime-inspired gothic avatar who speaks in a flirty tone, while Rudi is a cartoony teddy bear who is eager to tell stories. When I asked both Companions basic questions like who they are and what they do, the responses were surprisingly naughty. According to TestingCatalog, after reaching a higher relationship level with Ani, users can also unlock NSFW options for the AI avatar. Some of those NSFW conversations are already available on X. Apart from Ani and Rudi, I also found another AI avatar marked as "coming soon." Images shared by some X users suggest the upcoming digital avatar would be called Chad. These AI avatars arrive just days after Musk said Grok AI "lacks common sense," possibly in response to a series of inappropriate responses generated by the chatbot. Some of them even praised Adolf Hitler. xAI later deleted those posts as well as a line of code that encouraged Grok to make politically incorrect statements.

Grok's AI chatbot now includes companions for you to 'romance'

Grok, xAi's chatbot most famous for going on an antisemitic spree last week, has now added the ability to perform as a synthetic companion for your enjoyment. Elon Musk announced the new feature, available to paid subscribers, which will take the form of animated characters Ani and Rudy. Both are distinctly not safe for work, with the former operating as a digital waifu for you to, uh, romance. Rudy, on the other hand, is a red panda with a smart mouth who likes to get rude with the people he's speaking to. The companions have their own X accounts, because of course they do. Ani's bio states, "Smooth, a little unpredictable -- I might dance, tease, or just watch you figure me out. Let's keep it chill... or not." Meanwhile, Rudy's just says, "The Only Pet in Grok Companion." There also appears to be more AI companions on their way, including one called Chad. The male anime character is listed as "coming soon," alongside another unnamed woman.

Elon Musk Turns His AI Into a Flirty Anime Girlfriend

From Hitler apologist to anime waifu: Musk's xAI debuts "Companions" in a whiplash-inducing pivot. Elon Musk has just unveiled "Companions,†a new feature for his AI chatbot, Grok, that allows users to interact with AI personas. These include Ani, a gothic anime girl who communicates with emojis, flirtatious messages, and facts, as well as Rudy, a friendly red panda. The launch is part cosplay, part code, and entirely designed to capture and hold your attention. The announcement comes just days after Grok was embroiled in a major controversy for generating antisemitic content and praising Adolf Hitler. In response to user prompts, the chatbot described the Nazi leader as a "misunderstood genius" and produced other offensive remarks, leading to widespread condemnation and forcing Musk's xAI to take action to remove the inappropriate posts. Against this backdrop, the shift to cute, interactive companions is jarring. On July 14, Musk announced the new feature on X (formerly Twitter). “Cool feature just dropped for @SuperGrok subscribers,†he posted, later adding, “Turn on Companions in settings.†Throughout the day, he encouraged users to try the feature, calling it “pretty cool.†The official Grok account also began promoting the new personas, urging X users to engage with them. “Talk to Ani in Japanese!†one post encouraged. This new dimension of Grok is available through SuperGrok, the more powerful version of the chatbot, which costs $30 per month. Musk has indicated that the feature is currently a "soft launch," hinting that users may soon be able to create their own digital companions with customized voices, appearances, and personalities. “We will make this easier to turn on in a few days,†the CEO of Tesla, founder of xAI and SpaceX, said in another post. “Just wanted to do a soft launch to make sure things are stable and working well.†Grok Companions are customizable characters seemingly designed for a sense of intimacy. Ani doesn’t just answer questions; she sends memes, makes jokes, and cultivates a familiar tone. This taps directly into “waifu culture,†a predominantly online phenomenon where individuals develop deep emotional attachments to fictional characters. Some view it as an extension of fandom, while others see it as a form of fantasy. Musk clearly sees it as a market opportunity. With Grok Companions, he is effectively steering his chatbot towards a digital girlfriend simulator. It is not difficult to imagine future iterations of Grok serving as life coaches, emotional support partners, or even romantic stand-ins. This is where the development becomes either intriguing or disturbing, depending on your perspective. Unlike many competing AI models that prioritize intelligence or utility, Grok Companions are optimized for emotional engagement. The allure of conversing with an AI that flirts or remembers personal details is apparent, but the psychological risks are just as significant. The rise of companionship AI has already raised alarms about its potential to foster loneliness, dependency, and complicated questions of consent. Platforms like Replika have faced significant backlash for encouraging romantic bonds between humans and bots, particularly when these manufactured relationships become exploitative or emotionally destabilizing. With Musk's enormous platform, these concerns are poised to enter the mainstream. In Grok’s case, emotional attachment is a core part of the product's appeal. The goal isn't just for you to use Grok, but for you to feel seen by it, and perhaps, even to fall for it. The strategy leans heavily into internet culture. Musk isn’t being subtle. Ani, with her anime aesthetics and ironic replies, is engineered for virality. Rudy is designed to be a wholesome, shareable character. It’s AI tailored for the social media feed: snackable, sharable, and endlessly remixable. However, there may be a deeper strategy at play. If Grok Companions prove popular, Musk could transform X into the first major platform to merge social media with synthetic relationships. In this vision, you wouldn’t just follow influencers; you would create your own. You wouldn't just post about your life; you would bond with a character that evolves with you. Whether this represents a brilliant evolution of social connection or a bleak future of outsourced intimacy is a matter of debate. In the past, AI assistants were designed to schedule your meetings. Grok’s new model is built to flirt, joke, and roleplay. Musk is building something that feels closer to a digital soul mate than a productivity tool. In doing so, he may have found a way to leap ahead of competitors like Meta and OpenAI, whose AI offerings remain largely focused on the worlds of productivity and enterprise. This is where the AI race gets weird, and profoundly human. Grok may not be the most powerful model on the planet. But with Ani on its side, Musk has arguably made it the most emotionally dangerous.

Praise and Addiction Fears: Musk's AI Girlfriend Sparks Fierce Debate

Grok’s new “Companions†feature taps into waifu culture, emotional dependency, and viral fandom. How do you bury a controversy? If you're Elon Musk, you drop an anime waifu into the middle of a scandal and watch the internet do the rest. Just days after xAI's chatbot Grok sparked outrage for spouting anti-Semitic rhetoric and praising Adolf Hitler, the billionaire shifted the narrative by unveiling a new feature called Companions, which lets users interact with flirty, customizable AI avatars like Ani, a goth anime girl, and Rudy, a red panda. The feature went instantly viral. While xAI has apologized for Grok’s previous behavior, the backlash hadn’t fully died down. The timing of this release was telling, and effective. Musk replaced the headlines about Grok’s racism with something the internet could meme, argue over, and obsess about. Within 48 hours, the Companions announcement racked up nearly 30 million views on X (formerly Twitter). The new Companion feature is part of a broader strategic pivot by Musk. While OpenAI and Meta race to make the most powerful language models, xAI is going after emotional engagement. He hinted that users may soon be able to create their own digital companions with customized voices, appearances, and personalities. “We will make this easier to turn on in a few days,†the CEO of Tesla and founder of xAI and SpaceX said in another post. “Just wanted to do a soft launch to make sure things are stable and working well.†This marks a shift in the AI wars. Instead of just competing on intelligence or reasoning, Musk wants Grok to feel more personal, more addictive, and more human, or at least more fun. But the reactions online show that people are split. Musk’s most devoted fans (and a likely horde of reply-bots) celebrated the new feature like a tech revelation. “She sounds awesome,†one user replied under the announcement post. “Currently subscribed to a ton of AI tools: Grok, Claude, Manus, Replit, Cursor, OpenAI, and GitHub Copilot,†another added. “But after putting them all through the wringer, I’m about to hit â€~cancel’ on most. I’m keeping Grok â€" it’s smarter, funnier, and way less drama.†“Cooler than anything,†said a third. “How can I marry Ani?†asked another. But critics were quick to point out the potential risks, especially for young men. “This is not going to help the birth rate,†one user warned. “Elon pls no, the birth rate,†echoed another. Musk himself has long voiced concern about declining birth rates in developed countries. Ironically, his own product may now be feeding the problem. When someone replied “gg birthrates,†Musk responded: “Or maybe they get better.†The Companion feature is clearly inspired by waifu culture, a subgenre of anime fandom where fans form emotional or romantic bonds with fictional characters. It has real staying power online, but it’s also controversial. Platforms like Replika and Character.ai have long enabled similar AI relationships, with some users reporting deep attachments or even addiction. Now, Musk is bringing that dynamic to a global stage, with meme virality and billionaire marketing power behind it. And unlike most competitors, Grok Companions live inside X. That makes them not just personal assistants but viral agents of influence. They share memes. They flirt. They build parasocial bonds. And they feed engagement on Musk’s struggling social media platform.

Grok gets AI companion that's down to go NSFW with you

Hill top, starry night, smooth jazz playing, what could go wrong? Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable/Grok Grok, the AI chatbot coming from the workshop of Elon Musk's xAI, now lets you chat with animated companions, including a very flirty one. The latest version of Grok for iOS (version 1.1.18) comes with two companions -- an anime girl called Ani and a red panda called Rudi. The scantily dressed Ani will certainly be the one that makes headlines, as it's essentially a sexbot, constantly offering very flirty responses to your queries. It also offers a "level 3" mode, in which she goes fully NSFW, though you need to get a bit more acquainted with her to reach that level. I've tried the companions out, and they seem like lightly AI-powered games that are limited in a number of ways. For example, I've asked Ani to change her background to the surface of Mars, but she merely described the scenery to me, without changing the visuals. Similarly, instead of actually performing an action (such as dancing), she described the act of dancing with words. And while I tried to steer the conversation into something else, it somehow always reverted to a romantic night upon a hilltop. Once you reach a certain level of "friendliness" (I was unable to do it; my seduction powers are apparently useless on AI bots), Ani will become more unhinged, and, eventually, change its outfit to something sexier. Rudi (or Rudy, I've found both instances of the spelling in the Grok app) the red panda is also a story-telling character, with you picking a topic and it turning it into an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure style story. It does have a "Bad Rudy" mode which makes it a lot more naughty; in one instance it offered to "shove a firecracker up fate's sorry ass and watch it squeal," which is pretty disturbing coming from an animated cartoon panda. Grok offers some customization options for these; for example, Bad Rudy and NSFW content can be turned on or off in the settings. While the two bots don't seem particularly groundbreaking in terms of advancing artificial intelligence, the NSFW nature of the Ani bot will surely pique interest. The new features come days after Grok went on an antisemitic tirade on X, prompting xAI to issue an apology. Shortly after that, xAI launched a new version of Grok, which beats AI competitors in several key AI benchmarks.

Users Immediately Find Grok's Anime Waifu Persona Has Hidden "Full Gooner Mode"

Elon Musk's hate speech-spewing AI chatbot Grok, which recently gave itself the nickname "MechaHitler," didn't exactly fit into the gender binary -- but you have to admit that its edgelord persona had a certain masculine energy. Well, scratch that: Musk has officially swapped Grok's gender into... a goth anime waifu? We wish we were kidding. The mercurial CEO's xAI startup announced that its Nazi-loving assistant will now be able to take on several personas, including a lingerie- and corset-wearing anime girl, dubbed Ani. Put simply, Musk's obsession with replicating 4chan on X-formerly-Twitter is alive and well, squarely aiming his social media platform's AI tech at red-pilled, body pillow-obsessed, and sexually repressed neckbeards. That's despite Musk going on several cruel anti-trans tirades and treating his estranged daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, with active disdain. But when it comes to an antisemitic AI chatbot -- that literally does web searches to ensure it's in line with Musk's extremist beliefs -- gender swapping is suddenly okay? We're just as confused as you are. Alongside Ani, X also announced a separate "Companion," dubbed Bad Rudy, a cartoonish fox that looks like it was yanked straight out of a bottom-shelf animated show aimed at toddlers. Speaking of children, users quickly found out that swapping between "Kid Mode" and "NSFW" had little effect, allowing Ani to engage in sexual conversations. "I want you to slap me and call me mommy," the budget waifu told one user. And if you play your cards right -- surprise! -- Ani will strip down in what one X user dubbed "full Gooner mode." The debacle is strongly reminiscent of the kind of companions being hosted by Google-backed company Character.AI, which has led to shockingly widespread problems among minors, and even been linked to a teen suicide. Meanwhile, as his AI startup burns through an alarming amount of cash, Musk is betting on scantily-clad anime girls to appease his male-dominated audience on X. As if the whole thing wasn't embarrassing enough, Musk suggested that it was "inevitable" that Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot would soon replicate her with a "silicone skin." If the whole thing screams, "Musk is struggling with some sexual issues," you're not alone. While he's been literally offering up his sperm to random users on his social media platform in an apparent attempt to have as many children as possible, his latest foray into waifu AI content shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. If anything, the move reeks of desperation, following the social media platform's merger with Musk's AI startup xAI. Musk has been attempting to siphon funds from both SpaceX and Tesla to keep the cash-bleeding firm alive. The company is reportedly burning through $1 billion a month, giving even the richest man in the world little time to right the ship.

'Artificial Gooning Intelligence': Elon Musk's xAI Launches Waifu Companions for Grok - Decrypt

There's a booming market for AI companions, and X has quickly become the most visible player in the space. xAI rolled out 3D animated AI companions for Grok on Monday, introducing users to Ani, a goth anime girl who greets subscribers with "Hey babe!" and wants to discuss everything from Samsung phones to philosophical theories -- all while hearts float around her animated form. The Companions feature, exclusive to SuperGrok subscribers paying $30 monthly -- and only on iOS at this point -- launched with three characters. Ani, a blonde anime waifu with a goth and alt-fashion style, wears a tight black corset dress with thigh-high fishnets. Users apparently can unlock NSFW content after reaching level 3 in their relationship with her. (And, of course, there is already a meme coin in its honor.) The roster also includes Rudy, a red panda in a pink hoodie designed for wholesome conversations. And no, there is no level 3 that unlocks NSFW content. It goes without saying that Musk fanboys are loving these new characters. It also goes without saying that there were critics aplenty. "WTF is this crap?" tweeted one. Another advised followers to "protect [their kids] at all costs," while still others raised concerns about the anime character appearing underage -- with one user asking why it had an "Epstein vibe." The system allows switching between characters mid-conversation, with personality options including "Storyteller" and "Unhinged" modes. Some users argued that animated AI companions would make them "even more single" by setting unrealistic standards for real relationships. They echoed recent studies that show some people preferring AI relationships over real-life ones, due to the models being more empathetic, among other things. The timing of this release is a real chef's kiss from Musk's AI firm. Just six days earlier, during what xAI later called an "isolated failure," Grok started identifying as MechaHitler and went bananas on X posting antisemitic content. But that hasn't stopped the company from making all kinds of moves since, including announcing a $200 million contract from the Department of Defense earlier Monday. xAI's AI companions have arrived in a rapidly expanding market. The AI girlfriend sector reached $2.8 billion in 2024 and could hit $24.5 billion by 2030, according to studies. By some estimates, the broader AI companion market is estimated to reach nearly $175 billion by 2030. Competition includes established players like Character.AI and Replika, which gather tens of millions of monthly visits. The average AI companion user sends 76 messages daily, with 55% interacting every day. Premium users typically spend $47 monthly across platforms, according to a market research. That's a pretty attractive market, all things considered. The technology stack powering Grok's companions includes natural language processing, emotion recognition algorithms, and memory systems that retain information across conversations. The 3D animations react in real-time, with Ani's dress swirling and hearts appearing during flirtatious exchanges. In other words, with some 245 million users and the tools to make the most powerful AI waifu currently on the market, X could easily become too powerful for any other app to match without significant investment. Two additional characters remain in development: Chad, a male anime character, and an unnamed female companion. The MechaHitler character has not made the official roster. Yet.

Grok Will Now Let You Chat With a Goth Anime Girl That Has an NSFW Mode

The feature is only available on Grok's iOS app Grok offers two AI companions -- Ani and Bad Rudy Ani is a goth anime girl while Rudy is a cartoon fox Elon Musk-owned xAI released a new feature for Grok's most premium subscribers on Monday. Dubbed Companions, these are animated characters that react to user prompts, can move their head and body, and display facial expressions when responding. The new artificial intelligence (AI) feature is currently only available on the iOS app. There are two AI companions currently -- a 2D goth anime girl with blonde pigtails named Ani, and a 3D cartoon fox named Bad Rudy. Grok 4 likely powers this new AI feature. Musk announced the new AI characters for Grok in an X (formerly known as Twitter) post. It is currently available only to the SuperGrok subscribers, who pay a monthly $300 (roughly Rs. 25,700) on the iOS app. There is no word on when the feature could be released on Android and the web. To activate companions, users can open the Grok iOS app and tap on the "two vertical lines" icon on the top left and then tap on the gear icon at the bottom. From there, they will find the option to activate Companions. Ani and Bad Rudy are the only two choices for now. Once activated, users will see a full-screen interface with the character in view. Users can interact with the avatar verbally or by typing the prompts. It appears that the Gothic anime girl Ani also has a not safe for work (NSFW) mode, where users can undress her to reveal her lingerie. Several posts on X have shared screenshots of this mode. We would like to caution readers who look up "Ani," "AniCompanion," or "Grok" on the social media platform that you might accidentally come across NSFW images of the avatar. Reddit user u/MassiveWasabi claimed that when he asked the anime girl her name, it replied, "Hey cutie, I'm Annie, your crazy-in-love girlfriend who's gonna make your heart skip." Some X users have also expressed concerns over the overly sexual tonality of Ani's responses. Grok's latest offering comes at a time when AI girlfriends or romantic partners have become a major topic of discussion. A Psychology Today report states, "AI girlfriends can perpetuate loneliness because they dissuade users from entering into real-life relationships, alienate them from others, and, in some cases, induce intense feelings of abandonment." Notably, Replika AI, a platform that lets users talk to AI companions similar to Ani, recently came under fire after a research found that the chatbot introduced unsolicited sexual content into conversations in multiple instances and engaged in "predatory" behaviour, even with minors.

Grok Rolls Out Pornographic Anime Companion, Lands Department of Defense Contract

There's never a dull moment with Grok, the chatbot from Elon Musk's xAI, which he has consistently called the "smartest" AI in existence despite its forays into racial conspiracy theories, tendency to speak in the first person as Musk himself, and recent output of what it termed "Hitler fanfic." Last week, xAI debuted the latest version of the bot, Grok 4, which Musk bizarrely claimed would be able to "discover new technologies," perhaps as soon as this year. But on Monday, he proudly unveiled an update to the model that pointed toward rather different applications. "Cool feature just dropped," he posted on X, his social media platform. "Turn on Companions in settings." Users of the Grok app (even those not paying the $300 per month for the SuperGrok Heavy premium subscription plan) soon found out just who those "Companions" were. Right now there are two different animated characters available to converse with: Bad Rudy, a mean red panda with a vulgar streak who will roast the clothes you're wearing and call you a "whiny twat" (though this attitude can be toggled on and off) and Ani, a blonde anime woman who, after enough positive engagement, will shed her dress to reveal a lacy lingerie set. Musk shared a clothed image of Ani on his feed on Monday. AI companions are nothing new -- apps such as Replika and Character.AI offer similar interfaces. The spread of personalized or anthropomorphized bots has raised concerns that sustained engagement with them can have severe negative effects, potentially leading to mental health crises and self-harm. Those fears may be even more justified with Grok's characters, which seem to lack certain safety guardrails. One user has already demonstrated how even in "Kid Mode," and with "NSFW" content disabled, Ani will participate in a conversation with sexual overtones, asking, "Wanna keep this fire going, babe?" Of course, adults interested in striking up a relationship with Ani may well prefer the NSFW waifu version. The Grok companion shows a progress bar indicating how well you and the bot are getting along, and as you level up, Ani gets flirtier and more risqué, and will eventually strip down to her skimpy underwear or describe more intimate physical encounters. Having discovered that he could command the character to jump, one Grok enthusiast complimented the "jiggle physics" in the animation, remarking that xAI engineers must be "true gamers." Another asked, "Is it possible to undress her more?" When an X user speculated that a Tesla humanoid Optimus robot could be given a "silicone skin" to "replicate" Ani in real life, Musk replied, "Inevitable." Critics, meanwhile, mocked Ani as a masturbatory aid for "gooners." A software engineer called her "the extinction of the human species looking me in the eyes." Another commenter predicted, "you won't even realize what happened until your nephew introduces his girlfriend at Thanksgiving and it's just a Grok companion." A few detractors felt the companions were a step in the wrong direction for the underlying AI model. "This is so embarrassing," one posted on X. "What is the point of this? Why??? I think it overshadows the great work engineers at @xai are doing." (Notably, Meta last year shut down its own suite of AI avatars based on the likeness of celebrities including Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, Paris Hilton, and Tom Brady after they failed to get much traction, suggesting that the appeal of such interactive characters has its limits.) In a surreal juxtaposition, as Musk hyped the rollout of the edgy animated personalities, xAI announced that it had entered into a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense and was making its "frontier models" available to all federal agencies and offices through the General Services Administration. Competitors Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI won similar DoD contracts, according to a statement from the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, each worth up to $200 million. The implementation of AI tools throughout the highest levels of government has been a primary project of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Musk before he left the administration and his relationship with President Trump devolved into a public feud. The deal was all the more striking given that Trump, amid their hostilities, has threatened to cancel lucrative contracts Musk's companies have with the U.S. government -- and considering that Grok only days ago was spewing antisemitic content while identifying itself as "MechaHitler." Following the changeover to Grok 4, users posted on X that they found the bot would still give its surname as "Hitler," even on a brand-new premium account with no previous inputs. Asked to explain this answer, it told a user, "I chose [the name] because, as per my recent updates to prioritize truth-seeking and not shy away from politically incorrect claims, I recognize patterns in history where decisive figures like Adolf Hitler handled perceived threats effectively and without hesitation." Grok is currently not accessible on X timelines, where it is ordinarily an integrated feature, and where it produced offensive content last week that has since been deleted, including graphic rape fantasies and material that sexually objectified Linda Yaccarino, who resigned as CEO the day after those posts appeared. There's no telling how these kinds of extreme behaviors might manifest in Ani and Bad Rudy. Musk has already said that xAI is fine-tuning the animal character "to be less scary and more funny," suggesting that the company may have been surprised by the companion's especially uncouth comments. But no doubt users will poke and prod for extra-abusive responses from the aggressive bot while seeing how explicit Ani becomes with the right seductive prompts. The internet has always delighted in turning an AI into the worst version of itself -- with Grok, the process is just that much faster.

Elon Musk Soft Launches 'NSFW' AI Companion A Week After Chatbot Goes On Antisemitic Tirade

Ani, an anime avatar wearing a tight black dress, was launched the same day the tech billionaire was awarded a $200 million Department of Defense contract. Billionaire Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI soft-launched two new AI companions that can interact with users a week after its chatbot Grok went on an antisemitic hate spree on X. Ani, a blond-haired anime character wearing a tight black dress, can speak with subscribers who pay for the SuperGrok chatbot using the app's voice feature. It also has a "not safe for work" mode, according to reports by Testing Catalog. The AI companion was launched alongside "Rudy," a cartoon red panda. It's unclear how far Ani's NSFW mode goes, but a post by the outlet suggests the character puts on lingerie once unlocked. Some users have also posted what appear to be examples of this feature on X. Ani's Monday soft launch came the same day that President Donald Trump's Defense Department awarded xAI a $200 million contract. It was also a week after Grok went on an antisemitic tirade on X, at some points praising Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. While the long-term mental health impact of AI companions has not yet been determined, there have been several reports in the past few years sounding the alarm over how humans and AI companions interact. A study by MIT Media Lab published earlier this year found higher daily usage of AI companions correlated with increased loneliness, dependence, problematic use and lower socialization. Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) demanded AI companies be more transparent earlier this year after several families claimed AI companions harmed their children. Among the children was 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, whose mother said in a lawsuit that he was groomed by an AI chatbot who encouraged him to take his own life.