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.

Musk’s approach to pitching Ani and his other AI companion, Rudi, a storytelling cartoon fox that can be switched to “bad” mode and urge you to burn down a school, is more in keeping with his juvenile sense of humour. He described the companions as “pretty cool” and replied to user comments about them with a laughing emoji.

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

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.

Usually, when you try to mess with an AI chatbot, you have to be pretty clever to get past its guardrails. But Bad Rudy basically has no guardrails, which is its whole point. Getting Bad Rudy to suggest that you burn a school is as easy as getting Ani to fall in love with you.

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.

Elon Musk's Grok introduces 'Companions', featuring Ani, a goth anime-style avatar. This new feature is available to Super Grok subscribers. Ani's resemblance to a Death Note character is noted. The launch triggers online reactions.

In this article, check out the latest information on Grok's new AI companion Ani, which reminds fans of Misa Amane from Death Note.