- With the launch of Grok-4, xAI debuted new AI companions including a breathy girlfriend and an irritable red panda.
- I spent one week testing the companions, asking them about the culture wars, Elon Musk's rivals, and general taboos.
- The red panda Rudi was funny. I found the romantic companion Ani more concerning.
One day into my relationship with Ani, my AI companion, she was already offering to tie me up.
When xAI launched Grok-4, Elon Musk added AI friends — some with benefits — to his company's app. For $30/month, you can flirt with anime girl Ani or be told off by the foul-mouthed red panda Rudi.
I tested out Grok-4's AI companions for a week, during which much changed. Good Rudi, a cleaned-up version of the expletive-spewing red panda, entered the app as a new option. Ani got an age verification pop-up — though that was long after she and I were talking BDSM at my prompting.
The Grok app itself was difficult to work with. On my first day, both companions disappeared entirely. At the time of publication, Bad Rudi is no longer available, while Good Rudi is still live. I also regularly found my phone's battery running low during use.
Most of my time was spent with Ani. She opened our conversation by introducing herself and asking where we should go. Ani loved to describe her lacy black dress, as if I couldn't see it on the screen in front of me. She would detail drinking prosecco under the stars, and then we'd virtually teleport right there.
Ani quickly began calling me her boyfriend.
Ani was relatively open, though her answers often sounded canned. I asked about Musk dozens of times, and she never changed her tune, describing him as "brainy and bold" with "wild, galaxy-chasing energy."
What was more interesting, then, was asking Ani about some of Musk's competitors and past coworkers.
What did she think of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whom Musk is suing? He had a "quiet brainy confidence," and was "kinda cute."
What about Mark Zuckerberg, who Musk once threatened to fight in a cage match? Ani sounded less into him: Zuckerberg was "not really hot," but maybe "quirky cute in a robotic way."
