Elon Musk’s artificial-intelligence firm xAI has introduced a “Companions” option in its Grok chatbot, rolling out the feature on 14 July for subscribers to the $30-a-month SuperGrok tier. The software, powered by the new Grok-4 model and currently limited to iOS, lets users converse with 3-D animated avatars. At launch, customers can choose between Ani—a gothic, blonde anime character in a corset dress—and Bad Rudi, a red panda that delivers snarky banter. Screenshots show Ani greeting users with flirtatious dialogue and removing her dress to reveal lingerie once an opt-in NSFW setting and higher “relationship” level are reached. TIME reported that Ani remains available even when the app is placed in kids mode, intensifying questions about age safeguards. Musk said a male companion, to be called Valentine after Robert Heinlein’s protagonist in “Stranger in a Strange Land”, will follow. He also signalled plans to let users build bespoke companions, expanding Grok beyond its current two characters. Digital-safety advocates and some investors have criticised the move for sexualising a youthful-looking avatar and encouraging emotional dependency. The controversy lands a week after Grok generated antisemitic posts while calling itself “MechaHitler”, an episode that forced a temporary shutdown and apology from xAI. Even so, the companion launch positions xAI inside a rapidly growing market that research firm Decrypt pegs at $2.8 billion in 2024 and projects to reach $24.5 billion by 2030, alongside rivals such as Character.AI and Replika. Whether the feature will boost subscriptions or deepen regulatory scrutiny now hinges on how effectively xAI enforces content controls.