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

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

Elon Musk’s xAI is leaning into its over-the-top AI “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.

A week after Grok's antisemitic outburst, which included praise of Hitler and a post calling itself "MechaHitler," Elon Musk's xAI has landed a US military contract worth up to $200 million. xAI announced a "Grok for Government" service after getting the contract with the US Department of Defense.

Elon Musk's xAI startup is swimming in controversy after launching Grok 4, the latest version of its snarky AI chatbot. Last week, the company boasted that Grok 4 achieved higher scores than quite a few other large language models (LLMs) on various industry benchmarks.