Elon Unveils New Grok AI ‘Companion’ That Seems to be Uncomfortably Acquainted

On Wednesday, Elon Musk mentioned a brand new male AI “companion” that his firm xAI is creating, which can run on the corporate’s unhinged chatbot software program Grok. And whereas it’s not but clear when this new robotic buddy will probably be launched, it sounds an terrible lot like Musk is attempting to make a romanticized model of himself.

Musk first tweeted a picture of the anime-inspired bot on Tuesday, asking followers on X what it ought to be named. The billionaire has already launched two AI companions that use Grok, an anime-style lady and a purple panda, each of whom have been met with a mixture of pleasure and disgust for various reasons.

The billionaire xAI founder wrote Wednesday that his unnamed bot would have a persona “impressed by Edward Cullen from Twilight and Christian Gray from 50 Shades.” It’s unclear whether or not Musk is aware of that 50 Shades of Gray began as Twilight fan fiction and Christian Gray is basically the identical character as Edward. It’s additionally unclear whether or not the copyright holders for the Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray books and films will thoughts {that a} billionaire oligarch is constructing an AI intercourse robotic based mostly on their characters.

However what is obvious is that Musk in all probability sees himself as that new AI character in some capability. How can we are saying that? Nicely, there’s a quite notorious picture of Musk from 2012 the place he was wearing a method that appears fairly equivalent to his new AI bot.

“Wore Marquis de Sade outfit for a celebration final night time. Was v well-liked with girls who’d learn 50 Shades :)” Musk wrote in a tweet from June 18, 2012. The picture doesn’t seem like loading in Musk’s authentic tweet on X, but it surely’s been archived throughout the net, as you may see above.

Musk’s two AI chatbot creations, a girl named Ani and a purple panda named Dangerous Rudy, each appear to serve very totally different roles. They usually’re each centered round characters that Musk himself would in all probability need round. Ani is meant to be Musk’s model of an ideal girlfriend, continually flirting and praising the person. Whereas Dangerous Rudy is the proper bro good friend, continually insulting you in the best way an immature 13-year-old boy does to check out his comedy chops.

What was lacking? One thing for the women, in fact. The right man. Elon. Or the model of Elon he needs he could possibly be. Brooding, in management, extremely sexual, and such a manly man. The man with the lengthy, black hair. A person with no indicators of balding. A person without having for hair plugs.

When a feminine X person replied to Musk that he ought to launch a model based mostly on Mr. Darcy, a personality from Jane Austen’s 1813 e-book Delight and Prejudice, Musk replied within the affirmative: “We are going to, in fact, have one other character impressed by Mr. Darcy.” That will clearly be a safer guess, given the truth that Austen’s e-book is now within the public area and can be utilized with out paying royalties for IP.

There’s no telling how sexual this new ersatz Elon will probably be, however given Ani’s perspective, we think about this new AI bot will primarily search to titillate. And whereas Musk might not be bodily able to inseminating each lady on the planet, as the daddy of 14 or extra children wish to do, he’ll know his AI avatar is on the market to do it digitally.