Elon Musk’s Use of Employee Biometric Data for AI Chatbot Development
Elon Musk aimed to make xAI's Grok chatbot the world's most popular AI, focusing on the female chatbot Ani as a central part of this mission. To achieve this, Musk instructed his team to provide biometric data to enhance the training of this highly sexualized chatbot.
Work at xAI and AI Development Context
After a fallout with the president in May, Musk dedicated himself fully to xAI, working tirelessly to advance Grok’s capabilities. He based himself at the Palo Alto office, sometimes even sleeping there to accelerate progress. This came amid a competitive AI arms race, with Sam Altman at OpenAI leading efforts to create a near-sentient artificial general intelligence, competing especially against China.
Employee Involvement and Biometric Data Collection
According to The Wall Street Journal and PC Magazine, xAI was developing multiple avatars to interact with Grok users, including Ani, described as a "sexy, NSFW, anime AI chatbotgirl." Employees, mainly AI tutors, were required to submit their biometric data and sign a form granting xAI “a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to use their faces and voices.
"xAI was developing several avatars which would be used to communicate with Grok users. Ani was described as a 'sexy, NSFW, anime AI chatbotgirl.' Employees had to hand over their biometric data to help train the chatbots on how to act and talk like human beings."
Summary
Musk’s intense focus on xAI and biometric data collection from employees reflects the high stakes and competitive nature of current AI development.
Author’s summary: Elon Musk pushed xAI to new AI frontiers using employee biometric data to develop a provocative chatbot, illustrating the fierce global AI competition.