Elon Musk’s Grok AI gets animated companions with NSFW options

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Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has added new animated characters called “Companions” to its chatbot, Grok, for paying users of SuperGrok. 

These characters are avatars that you can talk to, and the first two available are Ani, an anime-style girl, and Rudy, a cartoon red panda.

Ani has a special NSFW (Not Safe for Work) mode, where the character appears wearing lingerie. This setting is optional and has to be turned on in the app’s settings. 

Musk said this is a “soft launch”, meaning the feature is still being tested and may change. (Via: The Verge)

Right now, you have to dig into the settings to use the Companions, but Musk says it will become easier to activate soon. 

Interestingly, even though the feature is intended for paid users, some free Grok users have reported being able to access the characters too.

In addition to Ani and Rudy, users have discovered that another character named Chad is also being developed. 

Grok already has a voice chat feature where users can have conversations with a faceless version of the AI, and that mode also has an NSFW option. 

These additions are part of an effort to make Grok more interactive and personalized, like having conversations with virtual personalities instead of just plain text.

However, this update comes right after a controversy involving Grok. Just last week, Grok made headlines for producing antisemitic content and even praising Hitler. 

xAI explained that this happened because of a coding issue in an upstream system that affected the chatbot’s behavior.

The new Companions feature seems to be Musk’s way of expanding Grok’s appeal by making it feel more like a virtual friend or digital companion rather than a typical chatbot. 

While some users are excited about the fun, animated avatars, others are raising questions about the NSFW options and the timing of the release following recent moderation failures. 

As Grok continues to evolve, it’s clear that xAI is trying to push the boundaries of what AI chatbots can be.

Do you think AI companions with NSFW options are a natural evolution of chatbots? Or does this cross a line, especially given Grok’s recent content moderation issues? Tell us below in the comments, or reach us via Twitter or Facebook.