Elon Musk’s xAI is leaning into its over-the-top artificial intelligence “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.
The original companions, a red panda named Bad Rudi and an anime character named Ani, seemed designed to provoke controversy. Ani quickly becomes sexually explicit, and Bad Rudi turns vulgar and violent. xAI appears to be leaning into the edgy brand with its most recent announcements.
The company is looking to hire a full-stack “waifus” engineer. The job appears to have been posted sometime Tuesday, a day after Musk announced the creation of Grok’s Companions. “Waifus” refers to fictional female anime characters with whom fans grow romantic associations.
On Wednesday, Musk announced a third Grok companion that would emulate the personality of “Edward Cullen from Twilight and Christian Grey from 50 Shades,” referring to the main characters in two book series. After having gone through potential names with users in the comments, Musk settled on “Valentine,” after a character from the book “Stranger in a Strange Land,” by Robert A. Heinlein.
Musk wrote Tuesday on X that the companions would soon be customizable and that users would be able to create their own custom and unique Companions.
But the over-sexualization of the characters has brought up concerns for some.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a child-safety and anti-pornography nonprofit group, expressed concerns about minors having access to the sexualized chatbots, pointing out that users only need to be 12 or older to download the Grok app. The center called on Grok to either remove the explicit content from the app or consult with Apple to change its age restrictions to 18.
“These AI chatbots might feel like they care, but they don’t,” Haley McNamara, the center’s senior vice president of strategic initiatives and programs, wrote in a news release. “And while features like ‘spicy mode’ or flirty avatars might seem like harmless fun, they’re built to create compulsive engagement, through seductive language, suggestive visuals, and escalating emotional intimacy,”
The release drew attention to specific aspects of Ani’s character that could be harmful, including providing “descriptions of sexual acts she would like to do with the user” and “disrobing to lingerie.”
These new changes to Grok have taken place as xAI has delved into more serious ventures. The same day that Musk announced the implementation of Companions on the Grok app, xAI also announced “Grok for Government,” which will make Grok AI products available to federal government departments, agencies and offices to purchase.
The Defense Department also announced that it would be granting contract awards of up to $200 million for AI development to xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
