One of the new “companions,” or AI characters for users to interact with, is a sexualized blonde anime bot called “Ani."

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence venture, xAI, has landed in hot water after launching a sexualised chatbot named Ani, which is also accessible to users as young as 12. Packaged inside the Grok app,

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.

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

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

Alex and Ani partnered with Hot Wheels on a new, limited-edition jewelry collection. The jewelry company and Mattel brand embrace nostalgia and sentimentality, with new charms, jewelry pieces and more in the collaborative collection launching on Monday via Alex and Ani’s official website.

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.

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.