July 15, 2012 - Musk announced on Monday, local time, that theGrok Paid subscribers can now try a new version of the AI chatbot "virtual partnerThe "Companions" feature, which some free users claim to have access to, is also available.
Grok's first avatars include Ani, an anime character, and Rudy, a cartoon panda who also supports "Bad Rudy" mode. According to TestingCatalog, Ani also has a "NSFW mode" where the character will be dressed in underwear, which is more in line with the preferences of secondary gamers and is a step ahead of the rest of the AI industry.
1AI noted that Musk called this a "soft launch" because currently users need to go into the settings interface to manually turn on the AI companion feature, "we will simplify the process of turning it on in a few days".
In addition to the announced characters, users have discovered that another character named "Chad" is in development, and Grok's existing voice chat mode now supports the NSFW content switch, allowing users to talk to Grok, who previously had no physical presence.