Elon Musk’s New ‘Flirty’ AI Avatars Spark Backlash Over Safety Risks

Google Snaps Up Windsurf Talent, Meta Unveils Massive AI Superclusters, & Moonshot's GPT-4 Rival

Author

Andres Franco
July 16, 2025

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Here’s the latest from this week in AI:

  • Elon Musk’s xAI Launches Flirty AI Avatars for Grok Amid Safety Concerns

  • Google Snaps Up Windsurf Talent After OpenAI Deal Collapses Over Microsoft Tensions

  • Meta Unveils Massive AI Superclusters as It Rethinks Open-Source Strategy

  • Moonshot AI Releases 1T Parameter Kimi-K2 Model That Rivals GPT-4 on Coding Tasks

Elon Musk’s xAI has launched animated AI companions for Grok users, including real-time voice avatars like Ani, a flirty anime girl, and Bad Rudi, a red panda. Users can build “relationships” to unlock new features, including NSFW content, adding a gamified layer to the experience.

The launch comes shortly after Grok faced backlash for offensive responses, with xAI issuing an apology and explanation. As emotional AI tools gain popularity, this move adds fuel to ongoing debates around safety and responsible design.

Doge Designer on X

Google is hiring Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan and key researchers in a $2.4B licensing deal, after OpenAI’s planned $3B acquisition fell apart due to complications tied to Microsoft’s partnership agreements. Windsurf will stay independent with a new interim CEO, while Mohan and team work on agentic coding for Gemini.

The deal includes multi-year compensation and a non-exclusive license, allowing Windsurf to keep serving enterprise clients. The collapse of the OpenAI deal underscores growing friction between OpenAI and Microsoft, and marks a major missed win for the former AI allies.

Source: Digital Watch Observatory

Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta’s plans to build massive AI superclusters in Louisiana and Ohio, including “Prometheus” (1GW by 2026) and “Hyperion,” which will scale up to 5GW. Hyperion alone will span an area the size of Manhattan, marking one of the world’s largest AI infrastructure projects.

Zuckerberg says Meta is investing “hundreds of billions” into compute to lead in researcher efficiency. At the same time, the company may shift from open-source AI models to closed systems, signaling a major strategic pivot for its new Superintelligence Labs.

Source: Mark Zuckerberg on Threads

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Chinese startup Moonshot AI has unveiled Kimi-K2, a 1 trillion parameter open-weights model that outperforms or matches frontier models like GPT-4.1 and Claude 4 Opus on coding, math, and STEM benchmarks. It also shines in agentic tasks like data analysis and multi-step tool use.

Powered by a new training method called MuonClip, K2 was trained with zero crashes, potentially slashing development costs. While it lacks reasoning and multimodal features for now, its strong foundation positions it as a serious contender in the open-source AI race.

Source: Moonshot AI

In Other News

Trump threatened 100% tariffs on Russia and 30% tariffs on EU and Mexican goods, but markets stayed calm. The Nasdaq closed at a record high, while the S&P 500 and Dow posted modest gains. The EU said it would delay retaliatory measures and seek talks with the U.S.

Investors appeared unfazed amid a busy week ahead, with June’s inflation data and major bank earnings due. Bitcoin hovered near $120,000, and China’s exports surprised to the upside, adding to the market’s shrug despite rising geopolitical tensions.

Source: Nasdaq

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