Elon Musk has unveiled a new AI-powered chatbot “companion,” which he says is inspired by Edward Cullen from the Twilight saga and Christian Grey from erotic romance novel 50 Shades of Grey.
The tech billionaire’s artificial intelligence offshoot xAI debuted the companions on Monday. The features allow users to interact with animated characters that can be personally customized and are powered by Grok – the platform’s AI chatbot.
Posting a picture of the animated male character on X Wednesday, Musk first asked his followers what to name him, before adding: “His personality is inspired by Edward Cullen from Twilight and Christian Grey from 50 Shades.”
He later said that the character’s name would be Valentine, “after the protagonist in Stranger in a Strange Land, the Heinlein book where our AI name ‘Grok’ was created.”
“To Grok something means to understand deeply and empathetically,” he wrote.
Grok previously dubbed itself “MechaHitler” and spewed antisemitic talking points.
The arrival of Valentine comes after Musk previously introduced two other AI companions, both of which have prompted controversy.
A female anime character, called Ani, becomes sexually explicit with her replies and offers to make users’ lives “sexier.” An investigation done by NBC found that the animation will strip down to its underwear if the user flirts with it enough.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, an anti-pornography and anti-sexual exploitation nonprofit, called for xAI to remove the Ani chatbot in a statement on Tuesday, claiming the character’s “childlike” appearance and behavior promoted high-risk sexual behavior.
Despite this, xAi is currently hiring a Fullstack Engineer to generate “waifus” – a term to describe anime girls.
“We’re looking for exceptional multimedia engineers and product thinkers who want to make Grok’s realtime avatar products the best in the world,” the job description reads.
xAi’s other character, a red panda named Bad Rudy responds in vulgar and violent ways. The animation insults users with graphic language and encourages them to sew chaos.
NBC News reported, through interaction analysis, that the panda suggested things including the overthrow of the Pope as well as floating an idea to steal a yacht in California.
