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

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.

On The Vergecast: Alexa Plus, Waifu Grok, Sony’s RX1R III, and Thunder Round take two.

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

The latest version of Grok for iOS (version 1.1.18) comes with two companions — an anime girl called Ani and a red panda called Rudi.

Mirage is the product of the Israeli startup Decart, which claims it is the “first system to achieve infinite, real-time video generation with zero latency.” It is powered by MirageLSD, the company’s live stream diffusion AI video model, which generates 20 frames per second at 768×432 resolution.

AI’s new $300 monthly subscription comes with two AI companions powered by its most capable model to date. I tried them. It got weird.

Grok's has two new animated companions for you to chat with, including an anime girlfriend named Ani and a red panda with two very different sides to him.