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.

Elon Musk has just unveiled “Companions,” a new feature for his AI chatbot, Grok, that allows users to interact with AI personas. These include Ani, a gothic anime girl who communicates with emojis, flirtatious messages, and facts, as well as Rudy, a friendly red panda.

Elon Musk has named xAI's new AI companion "Ani," triggering a new meme coin frenzy around the latest update of Grok, Grok 4.

Elon Musk on Wednesday teased a forthcoming male Grok companion from xAI, which already offers an anime waifu named Ani and a red panda named Rudi.

One of the weirder bits of news on the AI-front has been Elon Musk's rollout of sexually-charged animated chat bots. Officially called "companions," and unofficially "waifus," a Japanese term for romantic-partner or wife,

Earlier this week, xAI added what can only be described as an AI anime girlfriend named Ani to its Grok chatbot. Which is how I ended up on a virtual starry beach as an AI waifu avatar tried to give me a “spicy” kiss.

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

Crypto sleuths suspect Elon Musk's Grok AI companion, Ani, may be a hidden Bitcoin reference tied to a 2017 NFT. Here's what we know so far.

This marks a shift in the AI wars. Instead of just competing on intelligence or reasoning, Musk wants Grok to feel more personal, more addictive, and more human, or at least more fun. But the reactions online show that people are split. SuperGrok now has two new companions for you, say hello to Ani and Rudy! pic.twitter.com/SRrV6T0MGT