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.

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.

Elon Musk has named xAI's new AI companion "Ani," triggering a new meme coin frenzy around the latest update of Grok, Grok 4.

A week after Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok descended into antisemitic rants and declared itself “MechaHitler,” the social media platform X is back with new AI-controlled chatbots for paid subscribers to “SuperGrok.

Ani is the collective fantasy of the kind of person who would earnestly seek out an amorous AI that Elon Musk made. She wears a short black dress with a tight corset around her waist and thigh-high fishnets, and she is designed to be obsessed with you.

The companions have their own X accounts, because of course they do. Ani's bio states, "Smooth, a little unpredictable—I might dance, tease, or just watch you figure me out. Let’s keep it chill… or not." Meanwhile, Rudy's just says, "The Only Pet in Grok Companion."

Ani, an anime avatar wearing a tight black dress, was launched the same day the tech billionaire was awarded a $200 million Department of Defense contract.

At a time when other companies — like Musk’s former endeavor, OpenAI — are grappling with accusations that their products are causing users to fall into a state of AI-induced psychosis, Grok appears to be leaning into the technology's ability to quickly build rapport with human users.