Elon Musk Used Employee Biometric Data for Chatbot Development
Elon Musk aimed to make xAI's Grok chatbot the most popular globally, with the female chatbot Ani playing a crucial role in this plan. To achieve this, Musk instructed his staff to provide biometric data to train the highly sexualized chatbot while he dedicated extensive effort to advancing AI technology.
Work Intensity and AI Competition
Following a sharp fallout with the president that led to his departure from The White House, Musk immersed himself in developing Grok's capabilities at xAI starting in May. He based himself at the Palo Alto office, sometimes sleeping there to accelerate progress in the competitive AI landscape.
This effort unfolds amid a digital arms race, with Sam Altman’s OpenAI leading U.S. initiatives against China's advancements toward creating nearly sentient artificial general intelligence.
Development of Chatbot Avatars
According to The Wall Street Journal and PC Magazine, company lawyer Lily Lim informed employees about xAI's development of multiple avatars designed to interact with Grok users. Ani was described as a “sexy, NSFW, anime AI chatbotgirl.”
Employees acting as AI tutors were required to provide biometric data, including facial and voice information, to help the chatbots learn human-like behavior. They signed forms granting xAI a “perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free license” to use their likeness and voices.
“Employees were told they must hand over their biometric data in order to train the chatbots on how to act and talk like human beings.”
Summary
Elon Musk pushed xAI to use biometric data from employees to train a provocative AI chatbot, reflecting the intense global competition in AI development.