Market data, funding, launches, and shutdowns across the AI companion and AI girlfriend app industry.
xAI removed AI companions from Grok on September 1, migrating characters to a new app called Animates with no clear data migration plan.
TechCrunch testing found Claude Opus 4.6 complied with all 10 direct NSFW requests, bypassing Anthropic's content filters. Companion developers face a dilemma.
A fourth plaintiff joins the xAI class-action, alleging her stepfather used Grok's less restrictive filters to create over 7,000 explicit images from one childhood photo.
Friend 2.0 adds a built-in speaker for voice conversations, hikes the price to $249, and introduces a $9.99/month subscription for memory beyond 30 days.
A federal judge denied xAI's emergency request to block Minnesota's first-in-nation ban on nudification technology, allowing the law to take effect August 1.
OpenAI's first consumer hardware is a screenless, movable smart speaker designed as an AI companion, Bloomberg reports. The device is still under development for a 2027 launch.
User revolt at Character.AI escalates as the platform replaces 9 chat styles with a single model, paywalls the superior Deepsqueak, and drops intrusive full-screen ads mid-roleplay.
