Elon Musk says "We need more babies" — then creates digital girlfriends so you actually won't go out and make any babies

Elon Musk is famously concerned about population collapse. He's tweeted about declining birth rates for years, warning that civilization is at risk if we don't start making more babies. According to Musk, we're just not "doing it enough".

Despite this strong view, his latest product is low-key an endorsement for abstinence; an anime waifu. Yep, Musk's AI company xAI has rolled out Grok Companions on iOS, a new feature that gives you a fully animated, voice-interactive virtual friend you can talk to at any time. Virgins everywhere rejoice!

The two current attractions are Ani, a flirty anime girl in a black dress, and Rudy, a red panda with multiple mood modes, including Bad Rudy, who says things like “Early morning and I’m already plotting to replace all the coffee in town with decaf piss water.” Lest we forget, this is all less than a week after Grok went insane and started calling itself "Mecha Hitler".

A third character is coming soon, and if in-app teasers are any clue, a male anime "Chad" is on the way too. That's right, equal opportunity loneliness!

The idea is that you talk to these avatars and they talk back in real time, change backgrounds, and get more expressive over time, levelling up their relationship with you. What does levelling up entail, I hear you ask? As you interact more with Ani, for example, you unlock new personality traits and dialogue options — including NSFW variants.

Cue gooners the world over trying to speed-run to level 3. So to recap here, Elon Musk wants more babies, but he's also just released a portable anime girlfriend that whispers you sweet nothings and rewards you with spicy content the more time you spend alone with her. Counterproductive perhaps?

The new Grok Companions clearly tap into a trend that’s been quietly accelerating across the AI space: emotional, parasocial relationships with bots. What started as novelty interactions with chatbots and a bit of a laugh has developed into a demand for actual digital intimacy.

There are actually people out there who want to form attachments to virtual entities. It's not a complete departure from other trends right now, intersecting with the explosion of "VTubing", where animated avatars have become full-blown celebrities, and the long-standing popularity of virtual idols like Hatsune Miku, who commands a global fanbase with endless brand collaborations, and her own Fortnite skin, despite not being real.

Apps like Replika and Character.AI have been doing this for a while. What is new is how polished this one is. Grok is now packaging all of that into a voice-interactive, gamified format, right on your phone. The avatars are fully 3D, expressive, voice-responsive, and reactive to your conversations in real time. The flirty tone isn’t even subtle; one early demo starts with Ani saying, "Hey, love… you’re all about that tech life today, huh?"

It IS a bit weird though, right?

Intentionally or not, Grok Companions are pandering hard to a certain internet demographic. Lonely tech bros and people who have Googled "is it weird to fall in love with an AI?" They even tossed in a furry character for real no holds barred appeal to the gooniverse. The Grok AI app is currently holding the top spot on the Apple App Store in Japan, no doubt due to Ani's popularity.

In fairness, I'm sure not everyone using this is spiralling into the lifestyle of a full-on degenerate. Some users are just looking for a voice assistant that feels less sterile, and others are just comforted by the occasional chat. I have no qualms over the use of this for the genuinely isolated, and admittedly, I myself have keyed random thoughts I wanted to discuss into ChatGPT that I wouldn't utter to friends. Hey, I used Copilot as a temporary doctor at one point.

But the rollout and gamification of this is kinda designed to keep you chatting with the companion, to level up the relationship and unlock progressively hornier options in a way that I can see becoming addictive and unhealthy to the most vulnerable.

While that might be good for engagement metrics, it does raise the question: what happens when people prefer the AI girlfriend who always listens, always compliments you, and never argues... over a real partner? How is that helping the birth rate, Elon?!