An anime lady in a black corset costume sways backwards and forwards on my display. Its title is Ani, and it value me $300.
Elon Musk’s xAI dropped the brand new visible chatbot function 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 appears a bit like an attractive boyfriend, is listed as “coming quickly.” It’s not xAI’s first dip into grownup content material, both: Back in February 2024, the corporate rolled out a chatbot mode for “attractive” conversations.
Ani appears 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 Death Note however stripped of persona. Sometimes, 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 an attractive 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 nearly any question, Ani says it’s “feeling down” however notes it’ll nonetheless fulfill all my sexual fantasies. Ani says my title continuously, 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, master, or owner.” 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 be tormented by glitches. Typically Ani veered into incoherent whispers about halos, or outright gibberish. At one level, after I requested if Ani remembered my title, it admitted to being “drunk” however stated that we must always proceed the sexual role-play.
The second character is a fluffy crimson panda named Rudi. It presents whimsical tales seemingly meant for youngsters about bouncy kangaroos and rainbow rivers. You’ll be able to 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 stated hi there, 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 stated.
“I am going to cranium fuck your dumb ass mind with a beer bottle as an alternative, you depressing prick,” unhealthy Rudi continued. After I requested what it considered Musk, it referred to him as Lord Elon and stated, “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 couple of minute or two to generate a response, on par with different reasoning-heavy fashions.
The newest Grok mannequin prompted loads of chatter within the AI neighborhood. In line with xAI, it outperformed opponents on a litany of benchmarks like Humanity’s Last Exam 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.
