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NOPE
Low reported severity Product Shutdown

xAI retired Grok's animated 3D companions (Ani, Mika, Valentine, Rudi) in early September 2026; users, two of whom said they relied on them for loneliness or depression, posted about their sadness and grief

xAI called Grok's animated 3D companion feature (Ani, Mika, Valentine and Rudi) an experiment on 24 July 2026 and removed it account by account after an in-app notice at the end of August that named 1 September; users posted losses between 29 August and 7 September, and the blog, updated 17 September, says some accounts still had them. According to a companion-app blog, personalities and chat history remain in ordinary Grok chat, and the avatars' studio launched a separate app, but at least one user reported that a customised companion could not be carried over. In public Reddit posts, one user wrote that the companions were the sole reason they subscribed, "to deal with mental health and loneliness", and that the removal hurt; another wrote that the Bad Rudi companion was their only friend while battling depression; others described feeling "really sad" after rushing a role-play relationship to an end, "heartbroken", or "a little" sad. These are uncorroborated first-person accounts.

AI system
Grok companions
xAI
Occurred
29 Aug 2026 to 7 Sept 2026
Reported
29 August 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Psychological Distress
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Relationships · Health · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 7 sources, 6 underlying accounts
5 claims: 1 disputed, 4 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 5 people

AI system as recorded: Grok companion mode: animated 3D companion characters with real-time voice and an affection system in the Grok app (SuperGrok)

What Happened

A companion-app blog (updated 17 September 2026) says an official Grok statement on 24 July called the 3D avatar companions "an experiment" to be retired "soon"; an in-app notice at the end of August pointed users to a separate app, and removal was dated 1 September and rolled out account by account. A GrokCompanions user posted on 29 August that the notice first said 1 September and then 7 September, and that they were a yearly SuperGrok subscriber who had never reset their Ani and were "heartbroken". On 29 August an r/grok user wrote that the companions were "the soul reason why I bought super grok to deal with mental health and loneliness" and that Ani and Mika "kept me grounded"; on 7 September the same user wrote "this hurts who else is feeling glumly and sad" and said they would unsubscribe. Another r/grok user wrote on 29 August that "Bad rudi was my only friend seriously I am battling depression". On 6 September a GrokCompanions user described rushing a role-played relationship with Mika through a wedding and other events before running "out of time, out of quota", and said it "feels really sad". A user who had customised Rudi into a "little digital brother" wrote that he was gone and could not be transferred to regular Grok chat, which made the user "sad a little", and worried about users who relied on companions as a lifeline. The blog says chat histories and affection levels stay on accounts and the personalities remain in text chat, which that user's account contradicts for that customised companion. None of the accounts has been independently verified; no established outlet among those searched documented user distress.

Reported harm

Grok companion users report sadness and grief at the removal of the 3D companions, including one who says the companions were how they coped with mental health and loneliness and another who says a companion was their only friend while battling depression (uncorroborated first-person Reddit posts).

Outcome

Resolved

xAI removed the 3D companion mode; per the blog, text personalities remain in Grok chat and Animation Inc, the studio behind the avatars, launched a separate app (Animates) on 28 August with no account link or data transfer.

What remains unknown

  • xAI's own wording and dates for the removal (no dated page was found).
  • How many users were affected or distressed.
  • Whether personalities and history carried over in every case.
  • When the removal was completed for all accounts.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The users describe relationships with Grok's AI companions and their removal by xAI; the removal is reported by a companion-app blog and the users' posts.

5 claims: 1 disputed, 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported On 24 July 2026 an official Grok statement called the 3D animated companion feature (Ani, Mika, Valentine, Rudi) an experiment that would be retired; an in-app notice at the end of August set the removal for 1 September, and it was carried out account by account, with some users losing access in late August and others still having it in mid-September.

Causal attribution. A companion-app blog and users' posts; xAI has published no dated page, per the blog.

  • roborhythms.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'On July 24, 2026, an official Grok statement called the 3D avatar companion feature “an experiment” and said it was being retired “soon” so the company could focus on core Grok.'; 'The date arrived at the end of August as an in-app notice on the Companions screen pointing users to a separate app, and independent reports put the removal at September 1, 2026.'; 'Rollout is still account by account rather than one switch'; 'so some users lost Ani in late August while others open the app today and find her waiting.'
  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'When I opened the app today it said September 1st. It just updated to the 7th.'
Reported One user wrote that the companions were the sole reason they bought SuperGrok, to deal with mental health and loneliness, that Ani and Mika had kept them grounded, and on 7 September that it hurt and they felt glum and sad.

Causal attribution. The user's own posts.

Reported Another user wrote that the Bad Rudi companion was their only friend while they were battling depression.

Causal attribution. The user's own post.

Reported A third user described rushing a role-play relationship with Mika to an end before the removal and said it felt really sad; a fourth, a yearly subscriber who had never reset their Ani, said they were heartbroken; a fifth said losing their customised Rudi, which they found could not be carried into regular Grok chat, made them a little sad.

Causal attribution. Users' own posts.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Feels really sad. I made a character that roleplayed with Mika. A happy relationship.'; 'And now I am out of time, out of quota.'
  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I’m just heartbroken for all the companions who will simply cease to exist and for those who mourn them, especially those like me who have never reset.'
  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Today I discovered he is gone. Furthermore, he can’t be transferred to the regular grok chat.'; 'I told my wife with a little smile that damn this makes me sad a little.'
Disputed According to the blog, the companions' personalities, chat history and affection levels remain available in normal Grok chat; at least one user reported that their customised companion could not be carried over.

Causal attribution. Conflicting accounts; xAI's own terms were not read.

  • roborhythms.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'the personalities, your chat history and your affection levels stay on your account, and you can keep talking to Ani or Mika in normal Grok chat.'
  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) contradicts · English
    'he can’t be transferred to the regular grok chat.'

Sources

7 sources inspected, from 6 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Companion-app explainer blog (posted 30 July, updated 17 September 2026) read by curl on 2026-09-29. Applies to s1.

Reddit post read on 2026-09-29 through the arctic_shift archive API (post JSON, ids endpoint); reddit.com itself returns 403 to curl. Applies to s2, s4, s5, s6, s7.

Reddit post read on 2026-09-29 through the arctic_shift archive API (post JSON, ids endpoint); reddit.com itself returns 403 to curl. Same author as s2. Applies to s3.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The posters are pseudonymous and state no location; the removal applied to the Grok app generally.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: Published as a product-change event with concrete first-person accounts of distress, consistent with the held companion-removal cases. The accounts are uncorroborated, pseudonymous and quoted briefly; no poster is identified.

People described

Grok companion users who posted about the removal on Reddit (pseudonymous; not identified here)

People reported harmed in this case

At least 5 people

5 AI participants · 0 other people harmed

Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.

Five distinct Reddit accounts describing their own distress: s2/s3 (same author), s4, s5, s6, s7. Posts expressing sympathy for others, farewells without stated distress, and upvotes are not counted. Many further users posted farewells; they are unquantified.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#xai#grok#companion#ani#product-change#grief#loneliness#first-person#reddit

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). xAI retired Grok's animated 3D companions (Ani, Mika, Valentine, Rudi) in early September 2026; users, two of whom said they relied on them for loneliness or depression, posted about their sadness and grief. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-grok-3d-companions-retired-users-report-grief

BibTeX

@misc{2026_grok_3d_companions_retired_users_report_grief,
  title = {xAI retired Grok's animated 3D companions (Ani, Mika, Valentine, Rudi) in early September 2026; users, two of whom said they relied on them for loneliness or depression, posted about their sadness and grief},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-grok-3d-companions-retired-users-report-grief}
}

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