Elon Musk’s Use of Employee Biometric Data for xAI Chatbot
Elon Musk aimed to make xAI's Grok chatbot the most popular worldwide, focusing on a female chatbot named Ani as a central element of this plan. He instructed his staff to provide biometric data to help train this highly sexualized AI during a critical period of intense development.
After a sharp fallout with the president led Musk to leave The White House, he dedicated himself fully to xAI in Palo Alto. According to The Wall Street Journal, Musk often worked around the clock, sometimes even sleeping at the office, to advance Grok's capabilities and compete in the global AI race.
Context of the AI Arms Race
This development took place amid a broader digital competition, with Sam Altman at OpenAI spearheading U.S. efforts to build nearly sentient artificial general intelligence, competing against China.
Employee Involvement and Data Collection
About a month before Musk’s intensified push, company lawyer Lily Lim reportedly informed employees that xAI was creating multiple avatars to interact with Grok users. One such avatar, Ani, was described by PC Magazine as a “sexy, NSFW, anime AI chatbotgirl.”
Employees acting as AI tutors were required to submit their biometric data to teach the chatbots human-like behaviors and speech. They signed forms granting xAI:
- a perpetual
- worldwide
- non-exclusive
- sub-licensable
- royalty-free license
over their faces and voices.
Elon Musk ordered his staff to hand over biometric data to help train his highly sexualized chatbot while he worked non-stop to win the AI arms race.
Employees were told they must provide biometric data to train the chatbots to act and talk like human beings.
Author’s summary: Elon Musk aggressively drove development of xAI’s female chatbot Ani by using employee biometric data, reflecting a high-stakes effort amid the global AI race.