AI companies add cute mascots for agents

Major AI companies including Meta, OpenAI, and xAI have increasingly introduced cute mascots like Jolly, Dots, and GrokBot for their personal agents to build trust and approachability. The author argues that these characters help make invisible backend work visible, provide a memorable brand identity in a crowded market, and disarm users who are asked to share deep personal access. However, critics note that these mascots can obscure the reality of shared security keys and unlaunched safety features. Open article →