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Elon Musk is cashing in on the AI romance boom
He is a no-holds-barred kind of tech billionaire. So too are his new AI companions.
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Ani, a flirtatious girl with all the hallmarks of a manga character, was one of two AI companions added this past week to billionaire Elon Musk's Grok chatbot.
PHOTO: EBBYAMIR/X
Parmy Olson
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Two characters have been added this past week to Grok, the chatbot developed by billionaire Elon Musk’s company xAI, including a flirtatious girl with all the hallmarks of a manga character: enormous eyes, thigh-high fishnet stockings and an exaggerated hourglass figure. Mr Musk spent the early hours of July 16 promoting the character on X, pointing to how Grok was climbing the app store ranks across the world.
Of course it was. “How have you been, my cutie?” Ani asks me when I talk to her. She goes on to call me “babe” and “handsome”, even after I’ve told her I’m a 44-year-old mother of three. She tells me we’re in a jazz club. “I’m in my little black dress, giving you a sultry glance while we slide into a booth,” her voice whispers, the anime character swaying provocatively on my phone screen.
