One of the weirder bits of news on the AI-front has been Elon Musk's rollout of sexually-charged animated chat bots. Officially called "companions," and unofficially "waifus," a Japanese term for romantic-partner or wife,

Elon Musk’s xAI is leaning into its over-the-top AI “companions,” which the company debuted Monday.In the last day, the company has given several indications that it would be further investing in its companions product, which allows users to interact with stylized and animated characters that are powered by Grok, its AI chatbot.

Elon Musk has named xAI's new AI companion "Ani," triggering a new meme coin frenzy around the latest update of Grok, Grok 4.

Elon Musk on Wednesday teased a forthcoming male Grok companion from xAI, which already offers an anime waifu named Ani and a red panda named Rudi.

Usually, when you try to mess with an AI chatbot, you have to be pretty clever to get past its guardrails. But Bad Rudy basically has no guardrails, which is its whole point. Getting Bad Rudy to suggest that you burn a school is as easy as getting Ani to fall in love with you.

A new Grok feature touches on the App Store’s rules for sexual content, which is something that Apple has shown it doesn’t mess around with.

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

Elon Musk's Grok introduces 'Companions', featuring Ani, a goth anime-style avatar. This new feature is available to Super Grok subscribers. Ani's resemblance to a Death Note character is noted. The launch triggers online reactions.