The world of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots is shifting quickly, but Elon Musk’s company is making a move to stand out.
Granted, Musk seems to be spending most of his time on Capitol Hill these days, focusing on his responsibilities with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Tesla (TSLA) stock has been trending downward lately as the company’s sales decline, but xAI is eyeing new frontiers.
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Right now, many companies are rolling out new AI models and updating chatbots with interesting new features. OpenAI is currently making waves with the GPT-4.5, which it describes as the “latest and best” edition of its popular large language model (LLM).
But rather than directly competing with its rivals, xAI is trying to stand out. It recently announced a development that could put its Grok 3 in an almost entirely new category for AI models.
Elon Musk’s xAI, the marker of Grok, is exploring a new feature that may prove controversial.
(Photo by Vincent Feuray / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP) (Photo by VINCENT FEURAY/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
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Grok 3 may be boldly going where no (mainstream) AI model has gone before
As Musk geared up to launch the Grok initiative in 2023, tech enthusiasts waited anxiously to experience it. Speculation that it would respond to questions in a raunchy and entertaining manner that closely mirrored that of Musk himself helped generate significant hype as xAI prepared to roll it out.
Related: Grok sparks backlash with answer to question concerning Elon Musk
While this promise did not pan out, and Grok’s answers proved milquetoast for many users, the company seems to be turning to this playbook again. According to the Financial Times, the AI model is being pushed to deliver more risqué answers than competitors such as ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.
“Over the weekend, xAI launched the ability to converse over voice with the chatbot, including preset personalities such as “romantic,” “sexy” and “unhinged” — the latter two labeled as “18+,” the outlet reports. “By contrast, OpenAI’s voice mode, which was released last year, offers a range of different voices and personalities without specific adult-centred experiences.”
The concept of lonely people falling in love with AI personalities has been explored on the movie screen for years. But now it seems that we may be approaching a reality in which the plot of films like Her, the popular 2013 film in which a man falls in love with an operating system, are no longer fiction.
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Reports indicate that demand for virtual companions has been rising, suggesting this could be a strategic decision for xAI. In a market that is quickly becoming oversaturated with advanced AI models, the need to stand out is clear, and many tech companies have worked hard to distance their models from allowing adult content.
Will this be a major success or a public blunder?
While making these changes to Grok 3 could open the model to new users, questions about the risk it poses remain. After all, if companies routinely opt against doing something, there is genuinely a good reason for it.
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The Financial Times notes that “Grok’s recent changes have also raised concerns over child safety. The app has a 12+ age rating on app stores, and the chatbot is available through X. However, multiple people close to the company have expressed concerns that users can access the 18+ presets “without checks on age.”
Komninos Chatzipapas, Founder of AI girlfriend app HeraHaven AI, acknowledges there is some risk with this initiative but views it as a positive step both for AI and for the company.
In his view, the positive aspects outweigh the negative, particularly as demand for this type of technology continues to rise.
“I think it’s important we allow this industry to exist in the west,” he states. “Otherwise, users might be funneled to offshore websites which, besides adult content, also offer illegal content such as undress tools or AI CSAM generation.”
In a recent post on X, Grok referred to itself as “the world’s smartest AI.” This will be an interesting test to see not only if that is true but how it conducts itself while exploring mostly new territory for AI chatbots.
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