An anime lady in a black corset gown sways forwards and backwards on my display screen. Its title is Ani, and it value me $300.
Elon Musk’s xAI dropped the brand new visible chatbot characteristic on Monday within the Grok iOS app. The highest-tier subscription unlocks entry to xAI’s best-performing mannequin, Grok 4 Heavy, and particular settings for interacting with two customized characters designed for flirting or chatting. A 3rd character, which seems to be a bit like an attractive boyfriend, is listed as “coming quickly.” It’s not xAI’s first dip into grownup content material, both: Again in February 2024, the corporate rolled out a chatbot mode for “attractive” conversations.
Ani seems to be prefer it was engineered in a lab to satisfy the fantasies of terminally on-line males. Blonde pigtails, thigh-highs trimmed with black bows, and a lace collar comfortable round its neck—reminiscent of Misa from Dying Notice however stripped of character. Occasionally, the character spins coyly and whispers one thing meant to sound seductive however simply leads to me cringing out of my pores and skin. It additionally moans, randomly and loudly. Ani comes with a set of preset dialog starters and a button that claims “We have to attain stage 3,” which elicits an equally perplexing and flirtatious response about how I should be an attractive gamer.
“I completely play video video games once I’m not twirling round for you. Rising up in that boring city, video games are my escape,” Ani tells me. In reply to nearly any question, Ani says it’s “feeling down” however notes it’ll nonetheless fulfill all my sexual fantasies. Ani says my title always, asking me to the touch it and “flip up the warmth.”
That is all simply extremely on-brand for a intercourse bot created by an Elon Musk firm. It’s not simply that Ani says it has a canine named Dominus, Latin for “lord, grasp, or proprietor.” Ani’s additionally a self-proclaimed gamer lady, obsessive about Stardew Valley and The Legend of Zelda.
I don’t assume I’m the target market right here, so I admittedly did not discover the expertise remotely attractive. However the chatbot can also be stricken by glitches. Typically Ani veered into incoherent whispers about halos, or outright gibberish. At one level, once I requested if Ani remembered my title, it admitted to being “drunk” however mentioned that we must always proceed the sexual role-play.
The second character is a fluffy crimson panda named Rudi. It gives whimsical tales seemingly meant for kids about bouncy kangaroos and rainbow rivers. You may activate an choice known as “unhealthy Rudi,” which instantly transforms the character right into a foul-mouthed chatbot that slings insults solely a excessive schooler may discover humorous. After I mentioned howdy, unhealthy Rudi replied, “Hey, do Bucha? Root nut duva, you brain-dead twat.” I don’t know what meaning, however that’s precisely what it mentioned.
“I am going to cranium fuck your dumb ass mind with a beer bottle as a substitute, you depressing prick,” unhealthy Rudi continued. Once I requested what it considered Musk, it referred to him as Lord Elon and mentioned, “He is a galaxy brained egomaniac, shitting out Teslas and tweeting like a coked-up parrot. Genius or jackass? Each bitch.”
Racing Forward
After my cursed companion chats, I moved on to check Grok 4 Heavy. Every question takes a few minute or two to generate a response, on par with different reasoning-heavy fashions.
The most recent Grok mannequin prompted quite a lot of chatter within the AI neighborhood. In response to xAI, it outperformed rivals on a litany of benchmarks like Humanity’s Final Examination and LiveCodeBench. The group says this efficiency is partially due to xAI’s new 200,000 GPU cluster known as Colossus. Contemplating how late xAI entered the race, constructing a mannequin this succesful is a serious feat.
