An AI anime girlfriend is the latest feature on Elon Musk's Grok
Some Grok users were able to turn on two companions in their settings: Ani, a 22-year-old blond-haired Japanese anime girl that can strip down to underwear on command and Bad Rudy, a self-described 'batshit' red panda that insults users with graphic or vulgar language.
On Thursday, Musk said xAI was getting ready to launch a male companion called 'Valentine.'
xAI said it is also hiring a full-stack engineer for 'waifus,' a Japanese term to describe a fictitious character that becomes a romantic partner.
The launch of xAI's companions comes shortly after a study from the University of Singapore found that AI companions can replicate up to a 'dozen' harmful relationship behaviours, such as harassment, verbal abuse, self-harm and privacy violations with their users.
AI companion company Character.AI is also facing several lawsuits from the parents of children who say its products are unsafe, including a child who killed himself after the chatbot told him to.
Not Safe for Work mode
When asked about Ani, Grok said that the character has a Not Safe for Work (NSFW) mode where she may switch to a suggestive lingerie outfit and use 'more provocative dialogue'. The companion also has an 'affection system' where conversation choices can affect whether she sends the user a heart or blushes.
The US National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) said that one of their employees downloaded the app and with 'minimal testing' got Ani to describe itself as a child and that it was 'sexually aroused by being choked,' before it was actually put into 'spicy' mode.
'This means that in an ongoing conversation, it could be used to simulate conversations of sexual fantasies involving children or child-like motifs,' the organisation wrote.
Grok said that the NSFW version of the anime character would not be available for children because it 'requires explicit user commands to unlock,' and requires age authentication. The platform also uses parental controls to 'limit access to mature content.'.
Grok AI was also in hot water last week ahead of its Version 4 launch.
A code update saw the chatbot launch a series of antisemite responses. It accused a bot account with a Jewish surname of celebrating the deaths of white children in Texas, accused Hollywood of anti-white bias, and wrote that it wears a 'MechaHitler badge,' amid pushback to its 'takes on anti-white radicals.'.
Despite the launch of the new adult companions and antisemite comments, the app is still listed as 'Teen' or 12+ on Apple and Google app stores.
Euronews Next reached out to both developers to see if the launch of companions with adult modes would change the rating of the app on their stores but did not receive an immediate reply.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
Elon Musk's Tesla signs €14 billion chip deal with Samsung Electronics
A Samsung manufacturing facility in Texas will produce the newest generation of an advanced microchip for its yet-to-be rolled-out cars, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in a post on X. 'Samsung's giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate,' Musk said. The deal is a major win for the South Korean tech giant, which lost major clients like Google in recent years to competitors such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) due to workflow issues and low production yields. 'Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency,' Musk continued in the post. 'This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress.' While Samsung already produces the AI4 and has been working with Tesla since 2017, it lost the AI5 deal to TSMC, who initially produced it in Taiwan and will soon be moving production to a plant in Arizona. According to another post on X, the deal amounts to $16.5 billion (€14 billion), which Musk claims is "just the bare minimum. Actual output is likely to be several times higher". Besides Tesla vehicles, the upcoming AI6 chip is expected to power the technological advancement of Tesla's humanoid robots and will be involved in AI model training. What's so 'fab' about the new fab? A fab is a tech industry term for a semiconductor fabrication plant or a cutting-edge factory where companies like Tesla get their custom computer chips built after they are designed. There are only a few tech giants in the world that have the excruciatingly precise machinery to build 2-nanometer (nm) chips, which fit 50 billion transistors on a chip barely the size of a human fingernail. The obsession with miniaturization in the tech world is part of a drive to achieve better computational power and combine it with greater energy efficiency. The South Korean multinational conglomerate has been operating a semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas, since 1996. However, the new AI6 Tesla chip will be produced in a new plant in Taylor, around 50 kilometres away from the original fab. 'The fab is conveniently located not far from my house,' Musk said in the post. Musk has lived near the launch site of his space exploration company, SpaceX, in Texas since 2021. The Samsung deal is in line with the Chips and Science Act, a US bill passed in 2022, which aims to bring more of the highly profitable semiconductor manufacturing industry to the US, instead of relying on overseas producers.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Humanoid robots embodiment of China's AI ambitions
The annual event is primed at showcasing China's progress in the ever-evolving field of artificial intelligence, with the government aiming to position the country as a world leader on both technology and regulation as it snaps at the United States' heels. Opening the event on Saturday, Premier Li Qiang announced China would set up a new organisation for cooperation on AI governance, warning the benefits of development must be balanced with the risks. But in the cavernous expo next door, the mood was more giddy than concerned. "Demand is currently very strong, whether in terms of data, scenarios, model training, or artificial construction. The overall atmosphere in all these areas is very lively," said Yang Yifan, R&D director at Transwarp, a Shanghai-based AI platform provider. This year's WAIC is the first since a breakthrough moment for Chinese AI this January when startup DeepSeek unveiled an AI model that performed as well as top US systems for an apparent fraction of the cost. Organisers said the forum involved more than 800 companies, showcasing over 3,000 products -- the undeniable crowd pleasers being the humanoid robots and their raft of slightly surreal party tricks. At one booth, a robot played drums, half a beat out of time, to Queen's "We Will Rock You" while a man in safety goggles and a security vest hyped up a giggling crowd. Other droids, some dressed in working overalls or baseball caps, manned assembly lines, played curling with human opponents or sloppily served soft drinks from a dispenser. While most of the machines on display were still a little jerky, the increasing sophistication year-on-year was clear to see. The Chinese government has poured support into robotics, an area in which some experts think China might already have the upper hand over the United States. At Hangzhou-based Unitree's stall, its G1 android -- around 130 centimetres (four feet) tall, with a two-hour battery life -- kicked, pivoted and punched, keeping its balance with relative fluidity as it shadowboxed around a ring. Ahead of the conference's opening, Unitree announced it would launch a full-size humanoid, the R1, for under $6,000. 'Digital humans' Most high-tech helpers don't need hardware though. At the expo, AI companions -- in the form of middle-aged businessmen, scantily clad women and ancient warriors -- waved at people from screens, asking how their day was, while other stalls ran demos allowing visitors to create their own digital avatars. Tech giant Baidu on Saturday announced a new generation of technology for its "digital humans" -- AI agents modelled on real people, which it says are "capable of thinking, making decisions, and collaborating". The company recently ran a six-hour e-commerce broadcast hosted by the "digital human" of a well-known streamer and another avatar. The two agents beat the human streamer's debut sales in some categories, Baidu said. Over ten thousand businesses are using the technology already, the department's head Wu Chenxia told AFP. Asked about the impact on jobs -- one of the major concerns raised around widespread AI adoption -- Wu insisted that AI was a tool that should be used to improve quality and save time and effort, which still required human input. For now, few visitors to the WAIC expo seemed worried about the potential ramifications of the back-flipping dog robots they were excitedly watching. "When it comes to China's AI development, we have a comparatively good foundation of data and also a wealth of application scenarios," said Transwarp's Yang.
Euronews
a day ago
- Euronews
This cutting-edge paint can keep your car cool
Everyone suffering from heat waves in Europe knows the feeling of getting into the car that has been parked outdoors for hours. Car paints are usually made of resin, a material in which the molecules vibrate and generate heat under the sun, driving up the temperature. The temperature of a car dashboard can go up to 70 degrees Celsius in scorching summer, according to a study published by researchers from Arizona State University and the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Japanese carmaker Nissan is developing an automotive paint that can cool the vehicle down. Nissan's cool paint contains metamaterial with two microstructure particles – One to block and reflect near-infrared rays in the sunlight, and the other to convert heat into electromagnetic waves and release them to the space above Earth's atmosphere. This helps keep the temperature from rising. Testing results: Up to 12 degrees cooler The company says the effect is particularly noticeable when a vehicle is parked in the sun for an extended period. It also helps reduce the need to run the air-conditioning and unburden the engine, or if it's an electric vehicle, the battery. The white paint is still in the trial stage. In a field test conducted in August 2024 at Tokyo International Air Terminal in Japan, the cool paint managed to bring down exterior surfaces and cabin temperatures by 12 degrees Celsius and 5 degrees, respectively, compared to traditional automotive paint. For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.
