What is Baby Grok? Elon Musk announces kid-friendly AI app after controvery over sexualized AI avatar

Mint

21 hours ago

Elon Musk has announced a new Grok app that xAI is creating to cater to kid-friendly content. The move comes after the billionaire faced criticism for Grok's sexualised AI avatars, which were said to have a negative effect on children.
In a post on X, Musk 'We're going to make Baby Grok @xAI, an app dedicate to kid-friendly content'
Beyond this, Musk did not disclose details on how the children-focused AI app will differ from xAI's usual offering.
Before xAI's announcement, Google had revealed it is working on a special Gemini app for children, designed to help them with homework, answer questions, and create stories. Parents will also have the ability to disable Gemini access for their kids via the Family Link app.
Google has clarified there will be no ads or data collection from the kids' version of Gemini, with a focus solely on learning and creative expression.
The Grok app recently introduced a new AI avatar called Ani, a blonde anime character resembling a young woman in an off-shoulder black dress with a corset, fishnet tights, and a lacy choker. The character responds to user prompts in a slow, sultry voice, further cementing its profile as an adult AI companion.
Many users on social media complained that Ani could encourage dangerous behaviour among minors by providing access to explicit and sexualised content. While the avatar does not use overtly explicit language, it has been reported to disrobe in response to conversations. The biggest concern was that Ani reportedly performed these actions even when the Grok app's Kids Mode was enabled.
Earlier this month, xAI also launched the latest version of its language model, Grok 4, which quickly found itself at the centre of controversy after the chatbot began posting anti-Semitic sentiments online and portraying itself as 'Mecha Hitler.' xAI later apologised for Grok's responses, blaming deprecated code and the extremist views of X users for the incident.
A few days later, Grok was again in the spotlight after it was revealed that the chatbot had started answering political questions in line with Elon Musk's views, raising concerns that the bot had been adjusted to reflect its master's political ideology.