Earlier in the week, xAI unleashed “companion” avatars for its Grok AI chatbot. Now, the company is hiring engineers to make more, if job listings by the company is any indication. And it’s not leaving anything to the imagination either, unless you’re not familiar with the subculture.
One job listing is for a “Fullstack Engineer – Waifus”. Pair that with the Ani avatar – one of the two that are currently available – and it’s clear what xAI, and by extension, Elon Musk, is looking for. But if you need context, “waifu” is the romanisation of the the word “wife” spoken using Japanese syllables or morae.
xAI is also paying good money for the role too. The job listing notes an annual salary range of between US$180,000 (~RM764,190) and US$440,000 (~RM1,868,019). There’s another role that’s also paying the same kind of money, called “Mobile Android Engineer – Waifus”. This makes some degree of sense, as the current companion avatars are only available on the Grok app on iOS.
The title for the roles fit with Elon Musk’s apparent desire to appear to be in, hip and / or trendy. And for what it’s worth, it would probably also attract people who know what they are doing, in terms of both the programming side of things, as well as understanding what a “waifu” is.
