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.

Grok’s responses must come from “independent analysis,” not Musk’s stated beliefs. xAI has offered a couple more fixes for “issues” with its Grok AI chatbot, promising it will no longer name itself “Hitler” or base its responses on searches for what xAI head Elon Musk has said.

Musk, never one to pass up the opportunity to showcase his juvenile sense of humor, quote-tweeted the image of the phallic geofence shortly afterwards and wrote “Bigger, longer and uncut” accompanied by a laughing emoji in an apparent reference to the South Park movie.

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

People who pay for access to SuperGrok can now try the AI chatbot’s new “Companions” avatars, xAI owner Elon Musk announced Monday morning. The companions available currently include Ani, an anime avatar, and Rudy, a cartoony red panda.

The president’s vague threats make booting out his political enemies sound easy. Here’s what he can actually do.

The European Union will meet with representatives from Elon Musk's xAI to discuss problems with its social network X and integrated Grok chatbot. Grok generated and spread antisemitic hate speech across X and praised Adolf Hitler. xAI issued an apology on Saturday and said the problematic content was generated following a code update.

Elon Musk ruled out a merger between Tesla and xAI but said he plans to hold a shareholder vote on investment in the artificial intelligence startup by the automaker, in the latest step to deepen integration across his business empire.