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

Welcome to the rise of Grok Valentine and Ani, the newest AI companions from Elon Musk’s xAI—two digital entities that have taken Japan by storm and are quietly reshaping the global emotional landscape.

The latest version of Grok for iOS (version 1.1.18) comes with two companions — an anime girl called Ani and a red panda called Rudi.

Elon Musk's xAI is hiring two software engineers to develop AI anime "companions," according to a job listing on the company's website. The company is looking for a "Fullstack Engineer - Waifus" and a "Mobile Android Engineer - Waifus" to make "Grok's realtime avatar products the best in the world" — and both pay up to $440,

AI released two AI "companions" on its Grok platform, a Japanese anime girl named "Ani" and an animated red panda called "Rudi."

Mirage is the product of the Israeli startup Decart, which claims it is the “first system to achieve infinite, real-time video generation with zero latency.” It is powered by MirageLSD, the company’s live stream diffusion AI video model, which generates 20 frames per second at 768×432 resolution.

AI’s new $300 monthly subscription comes with two AI companions powered by its most capable model to date. I tried them. It got weird.

Ani is the collective fantasy of the kind of person who would earnestly seek out an amorous AI that Elon Musk made. She wears a short black dress with a tight corset around her waist and thigh-high fishnets, and she is designed to be obsessed with you.