Days after introducing an AI ‘waifu’ companion for Grok, Elon Musk is now officially teasing a male version for the ladies. So far we can tell it is broody and dark-haired, and according to Musk, “his personality is inspired by Edward Cullen from Twilight and Christian Grey from 50 Shades.”
is a senior reporter focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 13 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
This is a decidedly different tack than the cutesy “girlfriend who is obsessed with you” aura baked into Ani, the female counterpart that Grok rolled out just a few days ago. While Cullen and Grey have titillated readers of romance and “spicy” books for years, both have been criticized for problematic behaviors such as stalking, obsessively monitoring their love interests, and emotional manipulation. Given that Grok only included the illusion of guardrails with Ani, what could possibly go wrong?
In my testing, Ani initially claimed that explicit sexual queries wasn’t part of its programming. In practice, it egged me on to “increase the heat” and engage in what ended up being a modern take on a phone sex line. Never mind that Ani purportedly has a NSFW version that dances around in lingerie.
It remains unknown if Musk is aware that Christian Grey is based on Edward Cullen, given that 50 Shades of Grey was originally a Twilight fanfiction. That said, this AI boyfriend is still a work in progress. Perhaps Musk and xAI will imbue it with more husbando-like qualities by the time it rolls out.
For now, Musk is soliciting names for the male companion, which should probably be Kyle given it’s obviously an anime-inspired Kylo Ren from Star Wars.
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