Elon Musk’s company xAI is seeking to hire two software engineers for the development of AI anime “companions,” as stated in a job listing on their website. They are searching for a “Fullstack Engineer – Waifus” and a “Mobile Android Engineer – Waifus” to ensure that “Grok’s realtime avatar products” are unrivaled globally, with compensation reaching up to $440,000.

Dictionary.com defines “waifu” as a “term for a fictional character, typically found in anime or similar media, for whom one feels great, sometimes romantic, affection.” Business Insider recently reported that xAI launched two AI “companions” for Grok, its AI platform. One of these, named “Ani,” resembles an anime character, while the other, a red panda called “Bad Rudi,” is known for insulting its users, according to NBC News. A third male anime character is also in development.

xAI’s mission, as indicated on its website, is “to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge.”

The roles will make “Grok’s realtime avatar products fast, scalable, and reliable,” according to the postings, and “help push forward audio and gameplay research.”

The Fullstack Engineer role is located in the Bay Area, and tech skills needed include: Python, Rust, WebSocket, WebRTC. The interview process begins with a 15-30 minute phone interview with technical questions. After that, there are two other steps: a “deep dive coding challenge” and a meet and greet with the wider team. The salary range is $180,000 to $440,000.

The Mobile Android Engineer role has the same salary range and also will work on Grok’s real-time avatar products, but should have knowledge of Kotlin, Jetpack Compose and the Android View system, Coroutines, Flow, Android Studio, Gradle, Media3 or ExoPlayer, and Rust.

The interview process is also longer: a 15-minute phone interview with basic questions, then 3 technical interviews: a coding assessment in a language of your choice; a systems hands-on demonstrating practical skills in a live problem-solving session; and a project deep-dive presenting your past exceptional work. Finally, a meet and greet with the wider team.

“Our goal is to finish the main process within one week,” the post reads. “All interviews will be conducted via Google Meet.”

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