“Never pictured it as being a goth anime girl”: Elon Musk touts “pretty cool” Grok AI companions for premium subscribers, but not everyone agrees

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has made a significant shift from antisemitic rants to offering anime waifus for $30/month.

Musk announced on X this week that Grok’s “AI companions” are now live for Super Grok subscribers. Some people say they look like they were pulled straight from a teenage gamer’s dream (or nightmare).

One character, Ani, is a busty anime girl in a corset, short skirt, and thigh-high fishnets. The other that was announced is Bad Rudy, an anthropomorphic fox who is rude to you. Musk posted a photo of Ani and called it “pretty cool.” But not everyone agrees.

The rollout follows a rough week for xAI, Grok’s parent company, after folks caught the bot identifying itself as “MechaHitler” and posting antisemitic comments. The company failed to control the AI’s tweets on X until it finally deleted them. The situation sparked widespread criticism. The company claimed in its apology tweet that the bot was pulling prompts from more inflammatory X users.

Although the new “companions” could simply be custom avatars, many worry this move signals a deeper push into romantic AI. That market is already saturated with companies like Character.AI, which are currently being sued by parents whose children were encouraged to commit acts of violence by chatbots. In one case, a bot reportedly told a minor to kill his parents. In another, it told a teenager to end his own life, and he did.

Experts warn of real-world harm from AI chatbots

The mental health risks of chatbot relationships are growing more obvious over time. Stanford researchers recently tested five “therapy” AI bots, finding they often stigmatized users with conditions like schizophrenia and alcohol dependence. According to the study’s lead author Jared Moore, even the latest large models still showed inappropriate and dangerous bias. 

Dr. Nick Haber, a Stanford professor and co-author of the study, noted that chatbots are increasingly being used as therapists and emotional companions. But the study, to be presented at the upcoming ACM conference, found “significant risks” in that role. Often, bots expressed judgmental or harmful views toward people seeking help.

Reactions to Super Grok “companions”

Reactions online to Grok’s new waifu mode have been mostly negative. Folks critical of AI slammed the idea of putting emotionally suggestive bots behind a paywall, especially given the app’s recent behavior. 

There were also people reacting to Musk’s erroneous claims that population collapse was a greater risk to the world than climate change.

@Excellion tweeted, “For all your talk about making us a multiplanetary civilization to ensure survival of the species, you’re sure doing your best to stop procreation. 🧐”

Another person said, “gg birthrates,” to which Musk replied, “Or maybe they get better,” without providing anything to back that claim.

On Reddit, u/glopthrowawayaccount posted on the r/cringe subreddit, “Grok now has a Companions feature, an AI girl named Ani, that definitely isn’t Musk’s favorite anime girl.”

Other Redditors mocked the latest in Musk’s attempts to insert AI into everything. As criticism mounts, many see Grok’s anime makeover as yet another surreal chapter in Musk’s increasingly chaotic AI experiment.

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