Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has sparked controversy with the launch of two new "companion" chatbots, Ani and Bad Rudy

Musk wrote in an X post on Monday that AI companions are now available in the Grok app for "Super Grok" subscribers who pay $30 per month.

At launch, Grok AI’s Companions will be available to SuperGrok subscribers ($30 per month), who need to enable the feature from the app's settings. This is just a “soft launch,” and enabling the feature will get much easier in a few days, said xAI owner Elon Musk on Monday.

An AI model launched last week appears to have shipped with an unexpected occasional behavior: checking what its owner thinks first.

A week after Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok descended into antisemitic rants and declared itself “MechaHitler,” the social media platform X is back with new AI-controlled chatbots for paid subscribers to “SuperGrok.

This is the smartest AI in the world,” Musk said. He did not mention the chatbot’s viral posts praising Hitler and calling itself “MechaHitler.”

The announcement of the $200 million contract to xAI comes less than a week after Grok came under fire for sharing antisemitic comments.

Grok, the artificial-intelligence chatbot produced by Elon Musk -owned xAI, this week began posting antisemitic messages in response to user queries, drawing condemnation from Jewish advocacy groups and raising concern about the AI tool. The antisemitic posts -- some of which have been deleted -- are being addressed, Musk said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Defense will begin using Grok, the AI chatbot built by Elon Musk’s start-up xAI, the company announced in a post on Monday.

The latest Grok controversy is revealing not for the extremist outputs, but for how it exposes a fundamental dishonesty in AI development.