Earlier this week, xAI added what can only be described as an AI anime girlfriend named Ani to its Grok chatbot. Which is how I ended up on a virtual starry beach as an AI waifu avatar tried to give me a “spicy” kiss.

On Wednesday, Elon Musk discussed a new male AI “companion” that his company xAI is developing, which will run on the company’s unhinged chatbot software Grok. And while it’s not yet clear when this new robot buddy will be released, it sounds an awful lot like Musk is trying to make a romanticized version of himself.

Grok, a product of Musk’s company xAI, is calling the characters “Companions.” So far, there are two companions that users can chat with: a flirty Japanese anime character n

X CEO Elon Musk is testing animated “companions” for its xAI product. The companions include a flirty and sexually suggestive anime girl, named Ani, and a red panda named, Bad Rudy, who promotes chaos and boat thefts (X) X CEO Elon Musk is testing animated “companions” for its xAI product.

A week after Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok descended into antisemitic rants and declared itself “MechaHitler,” the social media platform X is back with new AI-controlled chatbots for paid subscribers to “SuperGrok.

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. SuperGrok now has two new companions for you, say hello to Ani and Rudy! pic.twitter.com/SRrV6T0MGT