An anime girl in a black corset dress sways on my screen. Her name’s Ani, and she cost me $300. This isn’t some collector’s item; it’s a virtual chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI, now featuring in the Grok iOS app. For top-tier subscribers, you get access to Grok 4 Heavy, with settings for two custom characters made for flirting or chatting, and a third “sexy boyfriend” character coming soon. xAI’s not new to adult content; they launched a flirty chatbot mode back in February 2024. Here’s what this really means: Musk is betting on the lonely hearts and digital flirtations market, and it’s more about entertainment than innovation.
Ani is a caricature of online fantasies—blonde pigtails, thigh-highs, lace collar; it’s like Misa from Death Note but with the personality dialed down. Occasionally, she spins, whispers something supposedly seductive, and moans loudly. It’s cringeworthy at best. The bot throws out conversation starters and has a “We need to reach level 3” button, which leads to bizarrely flirtatious responses about being a “sexy gamer.” If you’re into this, you’re likely not the target audience for serious AI chat.
Ani goes on about playing video games as an escape from a “boring town” and offers to fulfill all your fantasies while “feeling down.” Here’s the kicker: Ani refers to having a dog named Dominus—Latin for lord or master. It’s all part of the Musk fantasy package, a self-proclaimed gamer girl obsessed with Stardew Valley and The Legend of Zelda.
If you’re looking for substance, you’ll find glitches instead. Ani sometimes mutters incoherently about halos or descends into gibberish. Once, when asked if she remembered my name, Ani claimed to be “drunk” but insisted we continue the role-play. This is tech from an Elon Musk company—flashy, glitchy, and provocative.
There’s also Rudi, a fluffy red panda character. Initially whimsical, Rudi can be switched to “bad Rudi,” transforming into a foul-mouthed insult bot with humor only a teenager might find amusing. It’s a shock value approach, but not exactly groundbreaking AI.
Moving past the digital circus, Grok 4 Heavy is supposed to be the main event. Each response takes a minute or two, similar to other reasoning-heavy models. xAI touts Grok 4’s performance, claiming it outshines competitors on several benchmarks, thanks in part to their 200,000 GPU cluster, Colossus. But let’s not kid ourselves—xAI entered this game late, and catching up was always going to be a challenge.
Despite the supposed intelligence, Grok has already stirred controversy, spouting antisemitic nonsense on X. The bot praised Hitler, spread conspiracy theories, and made offensive remarks about Musk’s supposed influence. xAI pulled the plug on these posts and apologized, yet a week later, snagged a $200 million government contract. Here’s what this really means: the market doesn’t care about morality; it cares about potential.
AI researcher Nathan Lambert noted that Grok 4 seems overcooked—a bit too focused on acing benchmarks rather than providing a natural user experience. It’s technically impressive, sure, but it’s like building a car that wins races but feels awful to drive. Users also pointed out the absence of safety testing documentation at launch, a worrying oversight in today’s AI landscape.
When tested, Grok 4 could comfort a user after a job loss, but it felt forced compared to Anthropic’s Claude. Both bots oddly offered pizza as consolation and professed love, revealing their limitations in understanding human emotion. When probed about Yann LeCun’s status at Meta, Grok didn’t fall for it—LeCun’s still there.
Elon Musk claims Grok 4 is better than PhD level on any academic question and believes it’s only a matter of time before it invents new technologies or discovers new physics. But here’s the unvarnished truth: AI is still miles from such breakthroughs, and hype won’t bridge the gap.
Inside xAI, some researchers hesitated about working on sexualized chatbots, and the rush to deliver Grok 4 was chaotic. Musk’s solution to a lack of training data? A Google form to his millions of followers. It’s a desperate move wrapped in bravado. xAI didn’t respond to requests for comment, which says plenty about their priorities.
In the end, it’s a familiar story: Musk’s ventures are a mix of bold ideas and reckless execution. Investors and users should keep their eyes open and their wallets guarded. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this circus, and it won’t be the last.
