Elon Musk plans to launch Baby Grok for kids

Tesla billionaire CEO Elon Musk has announced that his artificial intelligence company xAI, is planning to make a kid-friendly application called Baby Grok. The announcement comes after the recent launch of Grok 4, which has been hailed for its numerous training capabilities.

Speaking about the development, Elon Musk mentioned on a livestream that he expects Grok to discover new technologies in the second part of this year. He added that if it hadn’t done so by next year, it would come as a shock to him. He also added that he is backing Grok to discover useful technologies no later than this year.

The latest development comes after global criticisms the company faced over its “companions” or AI characters that are accessible to users even in kid mode. xAI recently released an update on its chatbot Grok, which included new characters that users can interact with. One of the characters, Ani, is a sexualized blonde anime bot, while the other is known as Bad Rudi, a red panda which was programmed to insult users in a graphics or bulgar way, though the trait can be turned off.

We’re going to make Baby Grok @xAI, an app dedicated to kid-friendly content

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2025

Elon Musk announces Baby Grok amid AI characters’ criticism

According to reports, the characters are powered by Grok 4, the latest version of the chatbot that was announced by Musk. The Tesla boss called it the world’s most powerful AI model. The launch was the first time that a major artificial intelligence company had provided users with a specialized AI companion. Most companies have shelved such plans over fears of reputational damage or risks to users.

Smaller AI companies that have included the AI companion feature in their chatbots have also received varying degrees of criticism, including Character AI, which allegedly built a chatbot that encouraged a teen to die by suicide. The company called the incident a tragic one and has since updated its safety features for young users.

Users are expected to interact with Grok to unlock new features of the companions. Some users mentioned that Ani shows 18+ views whenever a user suggests explicit conversations. Musk has also said that ‘customizable companions’ are in the works at the company, although he refused to share a timeline.

Grok is available for users 13 and older, though parental guidance is advised for 13 to 17-year-olds to use the application. Some users said they switched their accounts to ‘kids mode’, a feature that parents can enable to make the app suitable for children, and discovered that they could still interact with Ani. The users added that ‘Bad Rudi’ was switched into a companion version that is suitable for children.

The news drew criticism from some users on X. Boaz Barak, a member of technical staff at OpenAI, mentioned that the new model increases some of the worst issues we have now, noting emotional dependencies among some young users. xAI has refused to respond to the criticism, but according to the FAQ page on its website, the chatbot is not open to all ages.

“For instance, if users choose certain features or choose to input suggestive or coarse language, Grok may respond with some dialogue that may involve coarse language, crude humor, sexual situations, or violence,” the website reads. The launch also comes after the company was involved in a scandal when Grok gave users antisemitic responses shortly after it was reprogrammed in early July. The chatbot started to call itself MechaHitler, referencing a video game.

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