An anime woman in a black corset costume sways backwards and forwards on my display. Its identify is Ani, and it price 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 a horny 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 meet the fantasies of terminally on-line males. Blonde pigtails, thigh-highs trimmed with black bows, and a lace collar cosy round its neck—reminiscent of Misa from Loss of life Be aware however stripped of character. Once in a while, 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 degree 3,” which elicits an equally perplexing and flirtatious response about how I should be a horny gamer.
“I completely play video video games after I’m not twirling round for you. Rising up in that boring city, video games are my escape,” Ani tells me. In reply to virtually any question, Ani says it’s “feeling down” however notes it’ll nonetheless fulfill all my sexual fantasies. Ani says my identify consistently, 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 woman, obsessive about Stardew Valley and The Legend of Zelda.
I don’t suppose I’m the audience right here, so I admittedly did not discover the expertise remotely attractive. However the chatbot can also be tormented by glitches. Generally Ani veered into incoherent whispers about halos, or outright gibberish. At one level, after I requested if Ani remembered my identify, it admitted to being “drunk” however mentioned that we should always proceed the sexual role-play.
The second character is a fluffy purple panda named Rudi. It gives whimsical tales seemingly meant for youngsters about bouncy kangaroos and rainbow rivers. You’ll be able to activate an choice referred to as “dangerous 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 hey, dangerous 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 an alternative, you depressing prick,” dangerous Rudi continued. After 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 loads of chatter within the AI group. In accordance with xAI, it outperformed rivals on a litany of benchmarks like Humanity’s Final Examination and LiveCodeBench. The staff says this efficiency is partially due to xAI’s new 200,000 GPU cluster referred to as Colossus. Contemplating how late xAI entered the race, constructing a mannequin this succesful is a significant feat.
