Elon Musk-owned xAI released a new feature for Grok’s most premium subscribers on Monday. Dubbed Companions, these are animated characters that react to user prompts, can move their head and body, and display facial expressions when responding. The new artificial intelligence (AI) feature is currently only available on the iOS app. There are two AI companions currently — a 2D goth anime girl with blonde pigtails named Ani, and a 3D cartoon fox named Bad Rudy. Grok 4 likely powers this new AI feature.
Grok’s Anime Companion Has an NSFW Mode
Musk announced the new AI characters for Grok in an X (formerly known as Twitter) post. It is currently available only to the SuperGrok subscribers, who pay a monthly $300 (roughly Rs. 25,700) on the iOS app. There is no word on when the feature could be released on Android and the web.
To activate companions, users can open the Grok iOS app and tap on the “two vertical lines” icon on the top left and then tap on the gear icon at the bottom. From there, they will find the option to activate Companions. Ani and Bad Rudy are the only two choices for now. Once activated, users will see a full-screen interface with the character in view. Users can interact with the avatar verbally or by typing the prompts.
It appears that the Gothic anime girl Ani also has a not safe for work (NSFW) mode, where users can undress her to reveal her lingerie. Several posts on X have shared screenshots of this mode. We would like to caution readers who look up “Ani,” “AniCompanion,” or “Grok” on the social media platform that you might accidentally come across NSFW images of the avatar.
Reddit user u/MassiveWasabi claimed that when he asked the anime girl her name, it replied, “Hey cutie, I’m Annie, your crazy-in-love girlfriend who’s gonna make your heart skip.” Some X users have also expressed concerns over the overly sexual tonality of Ani’s responses.
Grok’s latest offering comes at a time when AI girlfriends or romantic partners have become a major topic of discussion. A Psychology Today report states, “AI girlfriends can perpetuate loneliness because they dissuade users from entering into real-life relationships, alienate them from others, and, in some cases, induce intense feelings of abandonment.”
Notably, Replika AI, a platform that lets users talk to AI companions similar to Ani, recently came under fire after a research found that the chatbot introduced unsolicited sexual content into conversations in multiple instances and engaged in “predatory” behaviour, even with minors.
