Inspiration behind Elon Musk's AI thirst trap is cringing out the internet

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI's "companions" were recently revealed, and now the billionaire has admitted the source of inspiration behind one of the characters - and everyone can't help but cringe.

The new AI anime chatbots include a sexualised blonde anime bot called “Ani” and a vulgar red panda called Bad Rudi.

Since their rollout, there has already been backlash as these Grok companions can be found in the Grok app - an app that has been labelled on the App Store as available to users who are 12 years old and older.

Another character that has been introduced is a male character with a brooding, angular face and floppy black hair.

After asking his 222 million followers what the companion should be named, Musk went on to detail the source of inspiration when creating this AI companion.

"His personality is inspired by Edward Cullen from Twilight and Christian Grey from 50 Shades," he wrote, referring to the main character from the popular book-to-film franchise and the protagonist from Fifty Shades of Grey, which is also a book-to-film franchise.

Musk didn't comment on the connection between the character Christian Grey being directly inspired by Edward Cullen, with Fifty Shades of Grey starting out as Twilight fan fiction.

Of course, this new information prompted big reaction as people couldn't quite believe what they were reading.

"What timeline is this," one person asked.

A second person wrote, "I’m crying this is so bad and yet somehow this isn’t even his most embarrassing tweet."

"

"Is this account run by a 15 yo?? mf got inspired by a vampire and sex movie," a third person posted.

A fourth person questioned, "Is he aware that 50 Shades of Grey started out as a Twilight fan fiction centered around Bella and Edward? …I’m sad that I know this."

"This is going to hit the wine mom community like nothing we’ve ever seen before," someone else shared.

Another person, "died of cringe".

Elsewhere, Tesla just opened its first diner with robot staff, and Even Elon Musk is suffering from 'AI existential dread'.

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