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.

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.

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.

Musk's Grok AI just dropped a new Companion modes, featuring a flirty anime chatbot called Ani, and it has got the internet buzzing.

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

Elon Musk's xAI, which features a large language model that has spewed Hitler-supporting rhetoric and antisemitic tropes, said Monday it has signed a deal to provide its services to the US Department of Defense.

"Most other companies are doing everything under one corporate umbrella." These aren't the first examples of Musk blurring the lines between his companies, but they're the latest indication that Musk Inc.