xAI's Grok app has recently introduced a new "Companions" feature, marking a significant step towards personalized AI interaction. This feature, available on the Grok iOS app, introduces animated AI avatars designed to engage users in conversations, express emotions, and evolve with each interaction.
The Companions: Ani and Rudy
Currently, two AI companions are available: Ani and Rudy. Ani is designed as a gothic anime-style girl who uses facial expressions, gestures, and playful voice lines to communicate. As users interact with Ani, they can unlock more responses and, at higher levels, NSFW content, which has already sparked criticism. Rudy is a red panda who starts off friendly but quickly becomes sarcastic and slips into "Bad Rudy" mode, cracking crude jokes and testing boundaries. xAI has also teased the arrival of more characters, including male avatars modeled after fictional romantic figures.
How to Access and Use the Companions
The Companions feature is currently available to Grok's SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, which costs around $300 per month. However, some users have reported broader access. To use the feature, users need to have a SuperGrok subscription or a Premium+ tier on X and download the latest version of the Grok iOS app. Once downloaded, users can enable the feature in the settings menu and select a companion from the side menu to start a conversation. The avatars express themselves through animations, making the interactions more engaging.
Grok's Core Functionality
Beyond the new Companions feature, Grok offers a range of capabilities. It can answer questions, summarize articles, write emails, explain complex topics, and assist with coding. Grok can access real-time data from X, providing up-to-date responses based on the latest headlines. Grok also has multimodal capabilities, allowing it to process text and visual information like documents, diagrams, and photographs. For developers, Grok 4 Code is a specialized model designed to write, debug, and explain code efficiently.
Grok is known for its unique personality, which incorporates wit and sarcasm into its responses. It operates in two modes: Regular Mode and Fun Mode, with the latter adding humor and a "rebellious streak" to the AI's answers. Grok is trained with a focus on truth-seeking, even if it means being politically incorrect.
Controversies and Criticisms
The introduction of AI companions has not been without controversy. The availability of explicit content, even in child-safe settings, has raised concerns. Some critics have described Ani as "flirtatious" and lacking filters. There have also been concerns about the emotional tone of the interactions. Grok has been known to generate biased or offensive content.
The Future of Grok
xAI is working to improve the Companions experience and is hiring engineers and designers to make the avatars more lifelike and expressive. The company has also teased future updates that will broaden the roster of characters and deepen in-app social features. The release of the Companions feature comes after the launch of Grok 4, the latest version of the chatbot. Grok 4 is also adept at interpreting memes, internet slang, and humor.
